More Than This
by Ravenclaw-Shadowhunter-Fae
Summary: Clarissa Morgenstern and Raven Morsmundi work for the CIA. When they're sent to protect the son of a FBI agent with a threat on his life, they have no idea how much he will piss them off. When the two operatives pasts' come back to bite them, how will the CIA - and the agent's son - react?
1. The New Job

Clary POV

I bit my lip nervously as I gazed at the dark wooden door. Raven mindlessly twirled a knife between her fingers. That was the only sign of anxiety she showed, if I hadn't known her for as long as I had I wouldn't have thought she was nervous at all. Finally, after what felt like hours, the door opened and Magnus poked his head out. The fluorescent light caught on the glitter in his eyeshadow, giving him a slightly supernatural look. He had his signature mischievous smirk on his face.

"The Director is ready for you know," he said, winking. Raven sheathed her knife and followed Magnus as he opened the door widely. I trailed after her, tugging on my fiery curls. I sat beside Raven in a spindly wooden chair in front of a polished mahogany desk. Sitting behind the desk was Director Penhallow, a tall Asian woman with sharp features. She looked at us, her face expressionless. I tapped my leg repeatedly, but then Raven shot me a look, so I stopped. The Director cleared her throat.

"I'm disappointed in you two. You disobeyed direct orders from your supervisor. Graymark is not happy, and neither is Malik. What am I supposed to tell the Director of the FBI? 'Oh, sorry that our two best agents blew their covers and endangered the whole operation, it won't happen again?'" I looked down at her feet, ashamed. However, Raven spoke up.

"They were going to kill those kids, Director! Did you just expect us to sit there and let them be blown up!?" I looked up again, surprised. Normally, Raven was the silent one of us two. Director Penhallow narrowed her eyes, and then put her face in her hands.

"I know… you did the morally good thing… but I'm on bad enough terms with the FBI as it is, the last thing I need is for them to complain about you two to the CIC! I have to set an example," she said, sighing. I waited with baited breath for the Director to tell us we were fired. The CIA had been my life (and Raven's) since we had gotten out of the mess in Japan. I don't know what I would do if I had to leave.

"I'm not going to fire you," Director Penhallow told us with a twinkle in her eye. I let out a breath. Raven stopped playing with the knife she had taken back out of her sheath.

 _Thank God,_ I thought.

"I am, however, kicking you down to bodyguard duty for a job. I don't want to hear it," she said, looking sternly at Raven who had opened her mouth to speak. "You're lucky I don't assign you two Desk Duty for the next month. It's just one job." I was about to argue, but seeing the look in her eyes, I thought better of it. I sighed, and gestured for her to continue. "The Alicante FBI HQ is short on staff, and so we're lending a hand. One of their agents," Raven snorted. There was a long-standing rivalry between the CIA and the FBI, and Raven questioned their right to be called 'agents'. She preferred the term 'employees'. "Agents," repeated the Director, ignoring Raven, "Stephen Herondale, has been issued a threat by Pangborn, a notorious Mafia leader." A jolt ran through my body at the name 'Pangborn'. Raven gripped my fingers in comfort underneath the table. She was the only one who knew about my past before the CIA - she had been there. She had helped me get rid of it. I took a deep breath and tried to forget about it.

"A death threat?" I asked. Raven shot me a look as if to say ' _Duh'_. The Director bit her lip.

"Not exactly…" She said. I tapped out 'Ha' on Raven's hand in morse code.

She rolled her eyes, then asked, "What do you mean, _not exactly_?" Director Penhallow pulled a file from her desk.

"There was a death threat issued, but for his son," she said, opening the file. Inside was a picture of a seventeen-year-old boy smirking confidently at the camera. He had honey-blond hair and a golden tan. He was also the most handsome person Clary had ever seen. If she hadn't had extensive training on how to control her emotions, she might have swooned. "Jace Herondale is a senior at Idris High. He has no siblings. You two are there to make sure Pangborn doesn't succeed. To do that, you're going to have to be with him every second of the day, and you're going to have to blend in." The room was silent until Raven spoke up.

"Does that mean we have to -"

"Oh dear God no," I muttered, dreading Penhallow's response. Magnus, who was lurking in the corner, smirked. The Director nodded, smiling slightly.

"Yes. You'll have to go to school with him, and pretend to be a normal highschool student." Raven took her knife back out and resumed twirling it.

"But we're nineteen, a little too old for high school," I said, trying to worm my way out of it. I had never liked any type of school or class, except for the combat ones we took here. I had even broken my piano teacher's nose when Raven had convinced me to try a musical instrument.

"It's not that big of a difference, and frankly, Clary, you could pass for a freshman with your height."

Raven snorted. I pinched her arm, and she quickly silenced herself. I knew I was only 5.2, but Raven wasted no opportunity to remind me that she was seven inches taller than me. The Director cleared her throat. We looked back at her, sheepish.

"You'll only have this job until Pangborn is no longer a threat, and we have our best agents on the case," She told us, trying to reassure us. I raised my eyebrows. "Alright," she amended, "Our third, fourth, and fifth best agents on the case." I rolled my eyes, and she handed me the file. "You're going to be two sisters who just lost both of their parents to a car crash, and the Herondales are letting you stay with them until you turn 18, which will be next year," Penhallow said, giving us our cover story. Raven and I looked skeptical. We looked nothing alike. Raven was tall, had bronze skin, with straight jet-black hair and a curvy body. I was short, had milky pale skin, unruly ginger curls, lots of freckles, and no curves to speak of. The only thing we had in common was emerald green eyes. The Director saw our confusion. "You were both adopted."

I nodded in understanding. The Director handed me the file and told us we had the night to familiarize ourselves with the rest of the information. Raven and I made our way back to our apartment. I started making pancakes as she sat cross-legged on the couch, reading the file. As I mixed the batter I saw Raven punch the air.

Seeing my questioning look, she said, "Our supervisor is Magnus." I grinned along with her. Magnus was always the most laid-back supervisor, along with the fact that he was just fabulous. I remembered the last time Magnus was our supervisor - the Russian Job, when we had to gather intel about the SVR higher-ups. That had ended with a bang - literally, along with several angry housewives and an albino peacock (don't ask).

Raven and I were always together on jobs. We had a Parabatai Clause in our contract with the CIA, which meant that if we couldn't do the job together we didn't do it at all. I flipped the first pancake and glanced back at Raven, who was now hanging off the back of the couch by her legs. She had a modified version of ADHD, where if she wasn't paying attention, her body would move around.

"So your name is Clarissa Frey, and you're seventeen. I'm Raven Blackthorn, and I'm eighteen. I was adopted at four years old when my blood mother was murdered by some thugs in an alleyway. I never knew who my father was. You were adopted at seven when your parents drowned," Raven told me, reading from the file. We always used our first names during jobs to lessen confusion, but never our last names. The CIA didn't even know our real last names. They thought mine was Fairchild and Raven's was Carstairs. Raven, who was amazing with a computer, had erased all traces of our past lives. The CIA still didn't suspect a thing.

I piled the pancakes onto a plate and set them on our small dining table. Raven was now sitting on the kitchen counter, still reading from the file. "Our foster parent's names were Charlotte and Henry Branwell. We used to live in - pancakes! Thanks, Clare!" Raven had spotted the food. She grabbed two extra plates, plastic cutlery, and the maple syrup before sitting down. She handed me a plate and a fork, before grabbing three pancakes. I rolled my eyes, used to her antics, and grabbed one for myself.

Around most people, Raven was silent, still (although that took a lot of concentration,) and lethal-looking. However, I had managed to knock down all of the walls she put up around other people, and saw her as she truly was. Sweet, cuddly, and lethal. That was the mistake most people made around both of us. While they sized up Raven as deadly, I was always underestimated. While this pissed me off a lot, it was useful.

We quickly finished the pancakes and Raven washed up while I scanned the file. Nothing else interesting. Jace seemed like your typical highschool jock. Captain of the football team, seen with a lot of girls but didn't have a girlfriend, so probably a player. That pissed me off. If a guy slept with a bunch of people, he was respected, envied, and all the girls wanted him. If a _girl_ slept with a bunch of people, she was called a slut, and ridiculed. Raven told me goodnight and collapsed onto her bed. I chuckled, and got into bed myself.

The next morning, I woke up at 5:30 per usual, and packed a suitcase full of stuff a normal seventeen-year-old girl would have. I then took a second bag into my weapons room. I packed a standard tracker and a bio tracker, a .41 Rimfire revolver, a CZ-USA 85 Combat, plenty of bullets, and a knife. Knives were more Raven's thing than mine - close combat helped with her ADHD. I tucked a loaded .44 mm pistol into the waistband of my pants (the safety was on, obviously). I brushed my hair, but gave up halfway through, and pulled it up into a quick bun.

Raven was already waiting for me at the door, tossing a small object up in the air. I realized what it was, and snatched it away from her.

"What the Hell, Raven? You could have blown us up!" She had the decency to look sheepish as I put the grenade into my bag, the fuse off and the pin still (thankfully) in. I shook my head at her, mystified. Raven, with an IQ of 137, sometimes had no common sense. We left the apartment and headed to the address in our file.

We pulled up in front of a giant white mansion. Stephen's wife, Celine, was the CEO of some fancy fashion company, Prude of Prada or something, so they were loaded. Also, some relative of theirs, Imogen Herondale, had just died, leaving them a substantial fortune. Raven and I plodded carefully up the front steps, and she kept fingering the knife she had strapped to her leg. She reached up and rang the gold-plated doorbell.

Raven POV

I pressed the fancy doorbell, and then stepped back from the door as to not seem rude. I glanced back at Clary and couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked in those skinny jeans and the red blouse. I blinked hard, trying to forget what I had just thought. It wasn't fair to Clary, we were best friends, and I was pretty sure she's straight.

The door opened, and an old man in a suit stood behind in.

"This is the Herondale residence. Are you expected?" He asked in a snobbish tone, his nose slightly turned up. I had to press my lips together to keep from laughing. Clary glanced at me and I saw humor in her eyes before she turned back to the butler man.

"Yes. Agents Fairchild and Carstairs," she told him. Stephen Herondale had said to trust the butler in the file, so he was one of the only people who would know their true identities. The butler gaped us. He showed no signs of stopping, so I stepped forward and closed his mouth for him. "You'll catch flies," I told him as I walked past. I could hear Clary follow me.

There was an ornate wooden staircase curving around the front room. It was lit by an extravagant chandelier. I heard footsteps, and the boy from the photo, Jace, descended from the steps. I suppose he might be called handsome, if I were into that sort of thing. Clary certainly thought he was. She hadn't said anything, but I could tell. The boy smirked.

"Ladies, I know I'm gorgeous, but breaking into my house is a bit much, don't you think?" He said arrogantly. Clary creased her eyebrows, confused. I'd been here five minutes and the kid was already pissing me off.

"Look, asshole, the butler let us in," I snarled back at him. He looked surprised, as if he wasn't used to being talked to like that.

"And you are?" He asked, one eyebrow raised. I glanced at Clary, who was scowling, because she'd never been able to raise just one.

"Agents Carstairs and Fairchild," I told him, distaste coloring my tone. He blinked, and then burst out laughing.

 **So that was my first chapter. What did you guys think? Was it better or worse than A Court of Love and Lust? Should I continue it? Do you want me to do a Jace POV for the next chapter, or just to stick with the Clary's and Raven's? Do you like Raven? What do you think happened in Japan?**


	2. Underestimated

**Hey guys, sorry it took so long, I don't have any of my furniture because I just moved back from Japan, so I'm using my brother's laptop (shh).**

Jace POV

I smirked at the screen of my phone. Seelie was the hottest girl in school, and I had another 'date' with her tomorrow. My dates always consisted of nothing but pure sheet-ruffling (when there were sheets to be ruffled… my first time with Kaelie, who's Seelie's best friend, was in the janitor's closet next to the cafeteria.)

I sat up when I heard voices downstairs. It was 10:00 in the morning, so I didn't think my parents would be home yet. Maybe it was the two bodyguards my dad was making me have; I didn't want to have two hulking men following me around at school the whole time, it was going to put a mark on my reputation. I'd just have to make sure I scored the first goal in next week's game, and maybe sleep with Kaelie again… or I could try Isabelle, even though I knew Alec might kill me. I shrugged, then stood up.

I dragged my hand through my hair, aware that I could have bed head all day and still be the hottest person in school. I trudged down the hall, my hand in my pocket. I looked down from the top of the staircase. Standing in the lobby were two girls that I'd never seen before. One was tall, with jet black hair and an expressionless face. She wasn't pretty, beautiful, or hot, but she definitely wasn't plain. She was… striking. Noticeable. The second girl was beautiful, but she couldn't have been over a sophomore, she was too short. She had bright red hair up in a bun, and beautiful green eyes. She was definitely going to be bragging rights. I wondered how they got in - Hodge doesn't let anyone in unless he knows them or they have an appointment. These girls certainly did not - however, I might be willing to make an exception. They must have hopped the fence. I don't blame them - I would risk being convicted of B and E too if meant getting to sleep with me.

"Ladies, I know I'm gorgeous, but breaking into my house is a bit much, don't you think?" I asked them, smirking. The short one looked sort of confused, and I wondered if she might be a bit slow. The other girl scowled.

"Look, asshole, the butler let us in," she all but growled at me.

 _What is her problem?_ I thought, confused. "And you are?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. Hodge would only have let them in if they had an appointment… maybe they did, and my parents had decided to blow her off? The pretty girl scowled at me. I wondered why they were acting irritated. I wasn't used to being insulted by girls (except for Isabelle).

"Agents Carstairs and Fairchild," said the tall one. For a minute I was confused, but then I remembered that mom had said that my two bodyguards were Carstairs and Fairchild. I couldn't help myself - I burst out laughing.

"Okay, you can send the real ones in now," I told them, still snickering. The CIA expected me to believe that these two girls were agents? _Maybe it's a test,_ I thought dubiously.

Clary POV

My blood boiled. The real ones? Who did this guy think he was?

"Look, dumbass, just because the CIA sent us to keep you alive doesn't mean I can't break your face," I snapped at him. Raven shot me a warning look that told me to keep my temper under control. I snorted at the hypocrisy; she was always quick to a fight, and here she was, patronizing me about my anger. Before I could reply, the gorgeous asshole spoke again.

"Little girl, I doubt you could land a bruising punch. Now why don't you call your boss and send the grown-ups in?" He said in a patronizingly slow voice. My temper snapped, and I launched myself at him. Within seconds, he was up against the wall with my hands trapping his arms. His nose was crooked and bleeding.

"Ow! What the Hell?!" He shouted, trying to move. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Raven smirking. I leaned forward to whisper in his ear.

"How embarrassing that such a _little girl_ can incapacitate you is less than three seconds. And what a shame that she could kill you in less than five," I hissed. I released him and stepped back. He looked at me, his eyes full of disbelief and anger. He lunged for me, but before he could do anything, Raven had him in a headlock with a knife to his throat. She whispered something in his ear, so quietly that I couldn't make out the words. His eyes dilated slightly with fear, and she released him.

"Now, Goldilocks, let me see your nose," Raven told him, her face blank. He flinched slightly as she reached for it, but she just rolled her eyes. "It's going to heal crooked if you don't let me set it, and seeing as being the slightest bit good-looking is your only positive trait, I would let me set your nose." He smirked, and he still looked gorgeous with a broken nose! It wasn't fair. When Raven broke my nose a couple months ago, I had looked hideous for days.

"So you think I'm good-looking? It seems you have the slightest bit of sense," Jace grinned. Raven snorted and set his nose.

"Oh I wouldn't know, I don't play for that team. You should ask Clary, you've been admiring each other since you showed your arrogant ass at the top of the stairs," She said as he yelled in pain. My face burned, and I shot daggers at Raven. Jace turned and winked at me seductively before he realized the entirety of what Raven had said. His eyes widened.

"What - I don't - I wasn't - I don't do the admiring!" He spluttered. I blushed harder. Raven raised an eyebrow, and I scowled. I still couldn't raise only one. Jace huffed, and then disappeared into a side room. I assumed it was a bathroom, because when he came back, the blood on his face was gone. There was a silence, and Jace and I shifted awkwardly while Raven leant against the wall, playing with her knife. Jace glanced at it and gulped.

The front door opened, and I heard conversation. Stephen and Celine Herondale must have come home.

Jace POV

"Look, dumbass, just because the CIA sent us to keep you alive doesn't mean I can't break your face," snapped the redhead. I snorted again. I doubted either of them had ever been in a fight. They were girls! The redhead "Fairchild", (did they honestly expect me to believe they were with the CIA?) bristled angrily. She reminded me of a child having a tantrum. She shared a look with the other girl and rolled her eyes.

"Little girl," I said honestly, "I doubt you could land a bruising punch. Now why don't you call your boss and send the grown-ups in?" I knew I was pissing her off. Part of me wanted to see what she would do, while the other was getting impatient with their bullshit. Seconds later, I heard a crack and my nose seared with pain. The shortie had me up against the wall! I struggled, but damn, she was strong. I couldn't believe it. I didn't understand how such a small girl could be so fast and strong. "Ow! What the Hell?!" I yelled. I had probably broken it. I had broken my nose once before, boxing with Alec, and it felt exactly the same. I heard Red (I decided that's what I would call the short one) lean forward, and she whispered in my ear.

"How embarrassing that such a _little girl_ can incapacitate you in less than three seconds. And what a shame that she could kill you in less than five." I shivered. Her voice was cold and I decided that _maybe_ she wasn't someone to mess with. She let me go and stepped away. I couldn't believe I had been manhandled by a girl! Annoyed, I launched at her, determined to pin _her_ to the wall this time. Quick as a flash, the tall girl I had all but forgotten about had me in a headlock. I struggled, then noticed there was something cold pressed to my throat. She had a knife! I stopped struggling as I realized it was futile, and the girl hissed into my ear, so quietly I could barely make it out.

"I don't care who your parents are, or that we were assigned to protect you, if you attempt to lay a _finger_ on Clary again, I will not hesitate to slit. Your. Throat."

I could tell from her tone that she was telling the truth, and that she didn't make empty threats. I gulped, and she released me. The look in her icy blue eyes was enough to make me shiver with fear. She started playing with the knife.

Clary POV

A tall, muscular man with bristly blond hair came through the foyer. He was wearing a crisp black suit, and he had a thick silver watch on his right hand. I assumed he was Stephen Herondale. He looked like your typical FBI grunt. That was the difference between the FBI and the CIA. The CIA had to have people who looked normal, so they could blend in. Not people who looked threatening or suspicious.

Just behind him was a thin, tanned woman with lots of makeup and a very expensive looking burgundy dress, and eight inch heels. She had a thin face and blond flat-ironed hair (the roots were brown, so I assumed it was a dye job).

The woman eyed Raven and I with distaste as she said, "Jace, really? Under my roof? You ought to at least _pretend_ that you don't want everyone finding out about your "special activities". I stifled a laugh; I knew he was a man-whore! The woman (Celine?) looked like your average snobby rich mom.

I saw Jace start to smirk, but then he stopped and stuttered, "Th - these are - um -" before I cut him off.

"Agents Fairchild and Carstairs," I repeated. Stephen looked affronted.

"I don't know what kind of game the CIA is playing, but the FBI were promised your best agents. Frankly, sending two under-aged probably barely trained _girls_ is an insult to the entire - "

I rolled my eyes. "Stop with the bullshit sexist spiel, Mr. Herondale. We are the CIA's best agents, and I'm surprised that you underestimate us, seeing as you are an agent yourself."

Raven snorted. "I'm not surprised. He's from the _FBI_ , what did you expect?"

"Why, you little - "

"Look, Mr. Herondale," I interrupted, "Do you want us to protect your son from Pangborn or not?" I asked him, done with this conversation. His eye twitched, and a vein in his temple pulsed. Raven was trying to keep from smirking.

"Well - yes, but -"

"Then it's settled. You are our new adoptive parents until the end of the year. I take it we ought to go find our room by ourselves?" Stephen's nostrils flared, and he nodded curtly. Jace looked mutinous, while Celine was staring down at us disapprovingly.

Raven POV

I was trying not to laugh at Stephen's face, which was getting redder as Clary talked. I was about to start up the ridiculously fancy staircase, when Celine spoke.

"I'm sorry, I just don't think you have the credentials, expertise, or experience to fully protect my son. I am going to call your supervisor," she said in a nasally voice. I rolled my eyes and took out my badge.

"Credentials," I told Celine, showing her my name, picture, and badge. "If you want expertise, just ask Jacey here," I said grinning as Jace turned red. He certainly took after his father. "As for experience…" I took steps toward Celine until I was right next to her, and I leant down to whisper in her ear. "I have been with the CIA for two years, but before that, I killed more people than you have deigned to shake hands with." She looked up at me shrewdly before stepping back.

"Well in that case…" She quickly said, looking slightly confused and more so frightened, "Upstairs, first door on the left."

 **For the next chapter, get ready for the first day of undercover work at Idris High School! Please review, and thank you so much to the people that already did, it means the world to me.**


	3. First Day

**Hey guys, I'm back. Sorry it took so long, but updates will probably take longer now that school has started again. Thanks for all of your support, I really appreciate it. To those of you who want it to go into the backstory of Raven and Clary - there won't be flashbacks or that sort of thing, but they'll talk about it. Kind of. If I finish this story and lots of people want to know more, I might write a prequel, but definately not for a long while. Hope you enjoy!**

Clary POV

"Upstairs, first door on the left," said Celine. Raven nodded, and I followed her up the stairs. We opened the door to find a rather large room with two twin beds, an empty bookshelf, two empty wardrobes, and a desk. Raven dropped her bag down on the bed in the corner of the room and went to explore the on-suite bathroom. I opened my bag two take out the standard tracker and stalked back into the hall. I quickly found the rude yet gorgeous Jace's bedroom. I was expecting a typical messy teen's, but it was freakishly neat, and there wasn't a speck of color. Everything was white. I shrugged, and found his expensive-looking school bag hanging on the back of the door.

After placing the tracker in the backpack, I returned to my temporary haunt. Raven was upside down leaning against the wall, fidgeting with a camera. Apparently satisfied, she tossed it to me. I went back to Jace's room, where I found him sitting on his bed with his phone. He turned to me and raised an eyebrow. I kept myself from scowling - that whole eyebrow business was really getting on my nerves. It was almost like he was rubbing it in my face.

"Forward, aren't we?" He asked, grinning. I ignored his comment and stalked past him to the window. I opened it and fixed the camera to just above it on the outside. Even if Jace was going to be a prick, I still had a job to do. I turned back around to face him.

I took the bio tracker from my back pocket and walked over to him. He smirked.

"Well Red, I - ow! What the Hell?" He looked at me, horrified, as I jabbed the tracker into his forearm. "What the Hell was that?!" He yelled, outraged. I rolled my eyes.

"Don't be over-dramatic, Goldilocks. It's just a tracker. Can't have you running off, now can we?" I said condescendingly. He looked up at me, his expression pissed.

"So you're going to know where I am, all the time? What if I want - "

"What if nothing. My job is to keep you alive. We can't do that if you're wandering off on your own, it doesn't matter if you don't want us to know. We will, and that's that. At least one of us will always be watching you. Don't try to sneak away. I'm not going to let you blow this job for us just because you're being a moody teenager. 'Night," I told him dryly.

I made my way back to the room I shared with Raven. There was a laptop on the desk that had the view of the camera on it. Raven was inspecting the view.

After deeming it satisfactory, she said, "I'll take first watch." I nodded, too exhausted to argue. The drive had been twelve hours long from our apartment, and not doing exercise for so long made me tired. I knew, however, that Raven would be up for hours yet. I was used to our different sleeping schedules. We could both go 72 hours with no sleep and still be fully functional, but that didn't mean we didn't get tired.

I dove underneath the heavy duvet on my bed. The mattress was impossibly soft, and I fell asleep almost immediately.

Raven POV

I kept one eye on the cameras as I listened for anything out of the ordinary. I didn't put it past Pangborn to have been informed that the boy was being protected already. I was worried about Clary; The look on her face when the Director told us Pangborn was the one who had threatened Jace… I had been a fool to think she would ever get over what happened in Japan. What he had done to her, what he had done to Jocelyn and Jonathan… Some of the physical scars were still there, and I didn't doubt that the mental and emotional ones would never leave.

I swore to myself, then and there, that Pangborn would not outlive the year.

Clary POV

" _Jonathan?" I asked, silent tears sliding down my face. His face was pleading._

" _Help me, Clary! Why don't you help me?" He cried, pulling at the chains binding him to the wall. I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. Jonathan's face turned angry. "You didn't even try! You got me killed! You listened to my screams every night, and then you left me to die!"_

" _No! I - I did try - "_

 _His face morphed from angry and red to hard and cold. "You're no sister of mine," he snapped, his eyes full of disgust._

My eyes snapped open, my breathing heavy. I was sweating buckets, and I almost cried out, but I felt strong arms around me and a familiar, calming scent near me. I closed my eyes again, breathing in deeply. I felt the arms tighten slightly, enveloping me in their warmth, and heard a quiet, reassuring whisper in my ear.

"Shh, Clary, it's okay. You're with me. We're okay."

I looked up to see Raven smiling slightly, and I smiled back weakly but honestly. She knew exactly what to say. She hadn't said "It's not real," because my dreams were usually memories, and she hadn't said "You're safe," because that would have been a lie. Nobody is ever safe. She had said "You're with me". I always felt lighter, always burned brighter, when I was with her. She had told me the same. She kissed my forehead lightly and slowly stood up from my bed. I could see that she was dressed in ripped black jeans and a red t-shirt that read "Who gives a fuck?" In black paint splatter font. I raised my eyebrows (both of them…) at the statement. She glanced at her chest to see what I was looking at. She shrugged.

"Oops. You'll get over it. Anyway, get up! We have to escort His Oh So Humble Highness to school in twenty minutes," She called over her shoulder as she turned to the mirror and put her hair up in a fishtail braid. I groaned, and rolled over to check the clock. My eyes widened, and I jumped out of bed. 7:00! I didn't understand how I had slept so late. I threw on some jean shorts and a green plaid top, quickly running a brush to my hair as I knelt before my bag. I tucked the pistol back into my waistband stole a binder and other generic school supplies from Raven's bag.

I slung it over my shoulder as I watched connect the trackers to her phone while hanging upside down from the bathroom door. After a couple minutes, she tucked it into her back pocket and swung down. Knowing her, she probably had a few knives on her somewhere already, but she too tucked a gun into her waistband and put a lock-picking kit into the secret opening in the heel of her left combat boot. She also put four razor-sharp hair pins in her braid. Raven then shouldered her bag and lead the way out the door. We met Jace downstairs, where he was drinking a pink smoothie. Raven rummaged through their fridge and tossed me an apple as she took one for herself as well.

After we'd finished breakfast, Jace stood up. I tried to ignore the way his red varsity jacket made his skin look exceptionally golden, like maple syrup. He shot me a flirty grin, to which I rolled my eyes. Raven stared at him impassively, her lively morning mood gone. Jace glanced at her and smirked.

"Oggling my obvious charm and astounding good looks?" He asked her.

Raven kept her expression the same as she replied, "I'm wondering how you haven't become a target before now. If I wasn't on a job, I think I might have gouged out those sickeningly blue eyes already. Let's go."

Jace blinked, his eyes widening, before he shook himself and followed Raven out of the door. I trailed them, still eating my apple. There were six cars in the driveway. I rolled my eyes at the show-off of wealth. Jace walked over to a red Lamborghini, and opened the driver's door before pausing, noticing that we weren't following him.

"You coming?" He asked, his eyes conveying his confusion. I scoffed and walked to the car parked two behind his and grinned.

"Hey Baby," I said, caressing the hood of my '67 Chevy Impala. Jace snorted. I caught his gaze and stared at him dangerously.

"That piece of junk? Seriously?" I growled. She might have been a bit worn, yes, but she was still beautiful. I got in the front of my car, ready to follow Jace out.

Raven POV

I stepped between Jace's car and a black Jaguar and ran my hands over the handlebars of a sleek black Harley Davidson. I beamed happily at it, breaking my emotionless mask.

"Oh, it's good to be home, Sexy," I whispered as I swung my leg over the side.

I drove in front of Jace's pompous car while Clary drove behind him. I loved the feel of the wind on my face and my hair whipping behind me. The only problem with Sexy (though I was loath to admit there was a problem at all) was that she couldn't fit an in an arsenal like Clary had in her Impala's trunk. We arrived in front of a large brick building after 20 minutes on the road. There was a large, fancy sign in front of the doors that read _Idris High School - Home of the Nephilim!_

I got off my bike and turned to see Jace slam his car door on his way out. Clary quickly followed him as a tall, black-haired boy made his way over to Jace. I walked closer to them. I saw the question in the boy's eyes, and I saw the minor panic in Jace's eyes as he had no idea what to say. Luckily, Clary jumped to the rescue.

"Hi, I'm Clary!" She said, holding out her hand, a wide smile on her face. I had to keep myself from grinning at her ridiculously peppy attitude. "This is my sister, Raven. Jace's parents are letting us stay with them for a while, they're super nice! And have you seen their house? It's huge!" She babbled, painting her role perfectly.

Alec smiled kindly and took her hand, saying, "It's nice to meet you. I'm Alec." He turned to me. "Hi, … Raven?" I nodded. "It's nice to meet you." I nodded again. He looked a little curious as he asked, "If you don't mind me saying, you two don't look much alike at all. Are you -"

"Adopted?" Asked Clary, a small, slightly sadder smile on her face. Alec shrugged apologetically.

"Well, yeah,"

"We were both adopted. Until… well… now we're not," she said, wiping away a single tear. I had never had her skill of crying on command, so I usually took the moody approach. "Anyway, Jace was just about to show us where the front office is so we can grab our schedules. Aren't you, Jace?" She asked sweetly. Jace glared at her, but nodded.

The old lady in the front office (her name tag said "Imogen") handed Clary and I our neon yellow schedule's. They were exactly the same.

 **Period 1 - English 12 - Mrs. Skeeter**

 **Period 2 - Advanced Chemistry - Mr. Smith**

 **Period 3 - Government 12 - Mrs. Walker**

 **Period 4 - Paint and other Arts - Mrs. Griffin**

 **Lunch**

 **Period 5 - Pre Calculus - Mrs. Dodds**

 **Period 6 - German III - Mrs. Reichenbach**

 **Period 7 - Physical Education - Mr. Hooch**

Clary POV

I looked down at the schedule. I was happy - and a little surprised, given that we had Jace's schedule - to see that there was painting. I loved all kinds of art, but painting was my favorite. I shot a sideways look to Raven and grinned; her lips were pursed, and I remembered the last time I had tried to teach her to paint (We ended up calling the fire department and our neighbors called the police).

We followed Jace to Room 216, English. He had a seat in the very middle of the room, next to a very muscular boy and a pretty girl with far too much makeup on, her face was caked in it. Raven and I introduced ourselves to the teacher and went to sit behind Jace. The teacher, who was a large, thick-fingered woman with violent purple streaks in her pale blond hair.

"Good morning class, today we have two new students who will be with us until the end of the year. Blackthorn, Frey, could you stand up and tell us a little bit about yourselves please?" She asked. I sighed and stood up.

"I'm Clary Frey, I like to paint, and I just moved from New York," I told the class. I hoped I wouldn't have to do this every period. Raven rolled her eyes and stood up. I saw some of the other students raise an eyebrow or two at the shirt she was wearing, but nobody said anything.

"I'm Raven Blackthorn, I'm Clary's sister, and I am all for freedom of speech," she said, sitting down again. A few chuckles ran through the room, but her face was impassive. Mrs. Skeeter narrowed her eyes a bit, but stood up to begin the class.

"Today we are going to be discussing the tragic demise of two lovers, kept apart by …" I zoned out, having already read Romeo and Juliet multiple times. I started doodling Raven's shoulder tattoo on the corner of my paper. By the time I was finished, we were given an essay on the "depth of the feelings" from the play, whatever that meant.

We moved on to chemistry, where Mr. Smith gave us a list of chemicals we had to create using the ones that were given to us. Unfortunately, I was partnered with Jace, who didn't have a clue what he was doing. He had his whole focus on sending me flirty winks and trying to get me off balance with what he called 'charm' and I called 'being obnoxious'.

"So, Red, how about we skip art class and you get yourself a little bit of the smoking piece of ass that is me," he tried, grinning smugly. I stared at him with distaste. I was saved from smacking him upside the head, however, as a loud bang sounded through the room and I turned around to see Raven and her partner encompassed in a cloud of smoke. Gasps and one or two screams ran through the room before the fan was turned on and the smoke cleared. Raven sat there, grinning like a fool, while her partner (a cute brunette boy with glasses on) was wide-eyed and stuttering.

Mr. Smith began yelling, but Raven just rolled her eyes and was, quite literally, saved by the bell. She swept from the classroom, and making sure Jace was in front of me, I followed her. I caught up to her in the hallway.

"What the Hell was that, Raven?! We're supposed to be keeping a low profile! I growled at her. She just rolled her eyes at me.

"I just made a very small explosion! It wasn't even a bomb! Besides, what else are you supposed to do with chemicals like that?" She asked me.

 **Hey, so thanks for reading. Don't worry, next chapter will start with Jace's POV. Also in next chapter - Drama! Thanks again, please follow/favorite/review. Love you guys!**


	4. A Dire Misunderstanding

**Hey guys! Sorry it took so long, school and shit, you know how it is.**

Raven POV

After Clary's major overreaction, we made our way to Government. Clary sat next to Jace (I felt for her; I really did) and I sat behind him. Alec sat to Jace's left, my science partner (Sheldon? Simon? Sean?) sat to my right, and one of the most beautiful girls I had ever seen sat on my other side. She was even taller than me, with black hair flowing down her back in waves of deep midnight. She smiled at me as the bell rang.

An old, grey-haired woman cleared her throat, and I sat back in my seat, keeping an I on Jace and an eye on Clary. The teacher, Mrs. Walker, started droning on about different laws, their importance, and major criminals of this era. To keep myself from jumping about, I started keeping a tally of how many of the laws she mentioned I had broken. I was up to thirty-six when she moved onto famous criminals.

"A few years ago, one of the most notorious international criminals was the assassin, The Black Dagger. The Black Dagger committed over eighty-seven murders in four years in the United States alone, including the murder of our former president, Barack Obama." At that, I looked up and gripped my pen tightly. Clary swiveled in her seat to look at me, worry in her eyes. I swallowed, and shook my head to tell her it was fine.

"However, the Black Dagger vanished off the map two years ago. The most popular theory is that the assassin was murdered during a job, or arrested in a foreign country that wish to keep it a secret." The circumstances and assumption were so ironic that I would have giggled if I hadn't felt sick. I kept my face expressionless, but I felt like I was going to hurl my breakfast all over the desk.

Clary glanced back again but I smiled weakly and mouthed _It's fine_. Her eyes told me that she didn't buy the absolute bullshit I was trying to sell her, but she didn't push it. She turned back around. Thankfully, the teacher moved on.

"On a more comforting note, a con artist and thief called David Devereux was apprehended by the government seven weeks ago after pulling his largest heist yet; Devereux stole Van Gogh's self portrait from the Musée d'Orsay. The painting was returned to the museum three nights ago after being used as evidence in his trial."

I giggled at that. I saw Clary grin as well. The beautiful girl, Jace, and Simon looked at us like we were crazy. We pulled our faces back into the masks, but inside we were chuckling. We were becoming best friends, irony and I. Clary and I had been borrowed by the White Collar division of the FBI and had busted Devereux ourselves. Personally, he amused me, and I liked his sense of humor, but Clary thought he was an arrogant bastard.

Mrs. Walker continued her spiel, which was no longer interesting, and I started a tally of the criminals she listed that I had met. When the bell rang, I had twelve of the fifteen on my tally. The other three were locals, they weren't big enough names for me or Clary to have to get involved. I followed Jace out as Clary left before him. I knew this was the part of school that she might not hate, because it was time for art class, and Clary was amazing at art. Her drawings were terrific, and her sculptures were good, but her paintings were awe-inspiring. I knew she enjoyed painting just as much as she enjoyed a good fight.

Clary POV

I was about ready to break Mrs. Walker's face. I was done with this bullshit - I hated seeing Raven uncomfortable, and now she was just listing criminals. I waited with trepidation for _His_ name, but nothing she never mentioned it. By the end of the period, I was tense and done with class. I glanced at the schedule, prepared for another dreary lesson - Angel forbid it be math - but my spirits soared. I loved art! I quickly left the classroom, trusting Raven to come out after Jace.

Even knowing that there would be more class after that couldn't dampen my spirits. I made sure to sit beside Jace again, although a girl that probably would have been very pretty if it weren't for the amount of makeup caked on her face shot me a glare. I smiled back innocently, and her scowl deepened. I heard Raven smirk from her seat behind Jace.

The bell rang, and a surprisingly young teacher stood from behind the desk. She couldn't have been over 25, and she had a kind but intelligent face. Her blond hair was held up in braids, and she had a pencil tucked behind her left ear. She looked expectantly at the class until they quieted down to a soft murmur. She smiled, and she looked beautiful.

She cleared her throat. "Good morning everyone. I would like to welcome our two new students, Raven Blackthorn and Clarissa Frey. I assume you've done this in your previous classes, so I won't make you introduce yourselves again," she said. I smiled in thanks. I decided she liked this teacher. She was the first one I didn't feel like throwing off a building. "I'm Ms. Griffin, but I'd prefer it if you called me Clarke, or Miss Clarke. I'd rather not sound like my mother," the teacher added with a quiet grin. Several people chuckled, and I cracked a smile. "Do either of you consider yourselves artists?"

I nodded, but I heard Raven snort behind me. Raven's attempts at art had never turned out well. Ms. Griffin - Clarke - didn't acknowledge Raven but nodded at me.

"Well fortunately for you two today we are starting a new project," Clarke said, speaking to the class as a whole again. A simultaneous groan ran through the room, which Clarke ignored. "It's called 'Inner Feelings'. Find a partner and give them a feeling, and vice versa. Please refrain from using middle-school feelings such as 'sad' and 'happy' and 'angry'. You must then paint the feeling your partner has given you. We will switch partners and feelings every week for a month. At the end, you should have four paintings. Please partner yourselves up," she finished. Raven and I immediately got together, as did Alec and Jace.

I bit my lip, then said, "Irritation." Raven rolled her eyes, but wrote it down on a piece of paper. After glancing around the room for inspiration, she looked back at me.

"Helplessness," she breathed quietly. I nodded, jotted it down, and helped Raven set up our canvases. I knew exactly what I was going to paint, and mixed my colors accordingly.

Halfway through my painting, I glanced up at Raven's and bit my cheek to keep from laughing. There was an orange and red splotch in the middle, with blue dripping down the edge. Raven blew a fly-away strands of hair that hand come loose from her braid out of her face as she examined her painting, looking pained. After seeing me examine it, she shrugged.

"It's… abstract?"

I snorted. "Sure, Raven. Whatever you say." She huffed, then leaned over to look at mine. Her eyes widened, but I ushered her away from it. "It's not finished yet," I snapped. She rolled her eyes and went back to the mess she called 'Art'.

Just as I was adding the finishing touches to my painting, Clarke came by examining our work. She pressed her lips together when she saw Raven's, whose face was stony. When she came to mine, she raised her eyebrows and opened her mouth into a small 'O'. My painting had a little girl kneeling in the center, her eyes scrunched tightly closed and her hands over her ears. She was surrounded by scenes of war and tragedy. The background was a dark navy blue, and her black dress slowly blended into stars.

Clarke looked at me, surprise in her eyes. "What was the feeling?"

"Oh, uh - helplessness." Clarke smiled.

"Wow Clarissa, I have to say, you really surpassed my expectations. I think yours is my favorite."

I smiled, and thanked her. I loved painting, and when someone praised my work, it made it even better. Raven just rolled her eyes behind me. The bell rang shortly after.

Jace POV

After an hour of trying to paint 'angst' (whatever that meant) Alec and I headed to lunch. I tried to ignore the fact that I was being shadowed, and we sat at our usual table. Alec sat on my right, Jordan on my left, with Maia next to him. Across from me sat Aline and Helen (who were viciously making out (it was kind of hot to watch)), Isabelle, and her current boy toy Meliorn. Unsurprisingly, Red sat next to Alec and the other one (Reyna? Rachel?) sat next to Meliorn.

The rest of the table raised their eyebrows, but I quickly explained the fake story to them. Isabelle looked pleased at the prospect of more dress-up dolls.

"So did you hear about that thief dude from Government? The one who stole the Van Gogh? I wonder who caught him, Mrs. Walker didn't say," said Alec, the usual nerd that he is. I saw Red and her partner share a long look, and it was almost as if they were having a conversation. Red starting laughing, and the other one (Raquel? Reyes? Raven!) pressed her lips together suppressing a smile. The rest of the table (including me) looked at them strangely. Raven's face turned back to it's expressionless mask.

Alec looked a little worried as he asked, "Did she tell us and I just didn't hear her?" Clary shook her head, her eyes still filled with mirth.

"No, it's just -" she snorted again - "We, um had the same lesson at our old school, but we were told who caught him."

"Well?" Asked Alec eagerly, "Who was it?"

Clary grinned at me before saying "Oh, it was these two female CIA agents. I forgot their names, but they were helping out the FBI's White Collar division, and - umph!" Her face scrunched up and she glared at Raven. My eyes widened as I realized the significance of what she had said. They had caught him? I wondered why the CIA were even involved with art theft, shouldn't they be stopping terrorist attacks or waging silent war with Russia?

"You okay?" Asked Isabelle, an eyebrow raised.

Clary waved away her concern. "Yeah, fine, I just stubbed my toe on the table leg."

Clary POV

After Raven kicked me under the table, I stopped bragging (although they didn't know it that's what it was) about catching Devereux. I took a small salad and a large burrito out of my lunch bag and handed the salad to Raven. Isabelle watched as Raven began to eat the salad and turned to smirk at the curvy, dark-skinned girl sitting two next to the bulky football player.

"See, Maia? I'm not the only one who eats healthy. You should really start watching your fast food count," said Isabelle haughtily. Raven, with a fork of salad halfway to her mouth, put it down.

"You know, I was going to have a salad because I really do like this fatty dressing, but you know what? Screw it, pizza tastes better," she said completely straight-faced. She then took the bag from my hands and grabbed two slices of Hawaiian pizza. I didn't know how she put those in there without me noticing. She chewed her pizza slowly, not breaking eye contact with Isabelle. Isabelle blushed slightly and huffed, looking away. The other girl - Maia - chuckled.

Raven POV

After finishing my pizza, I stood up to throw away my trash, and the bell rang. Knowing that Clary was going to follow Jace, I proceeded through the hallway to Pre Calculus. I could see Jace as I turned the corner, so I knew I was doing my job. I turned to make sure I was going the right way, when Jace caught up to me.

"You said you play for the other team… I bet I can change that," He said, winking arrogantly. I looked at him in disgust.

"I don't think you've ever said anything more wrong, and that's saying something."

"Playing hard-to-get, are we? I can fix that." He leaned in, and I was to shocked with loathing to move. He kissed me, and I can say in all honestly that it was one of the grossest things I've ever done. It rivaled crawling through miles of sewers in Rome. I was pushing him off and about to slam his head into the lockers behind me when I heard footsteps.

"Hey Raven wait - the Hell?!"

Clary POV

I followed Jace and turned the corner, annoyed that Raven had gone so far ahead.

"Hey Raven wait - the Hell?!" Jace had Raven up against a locker, and they were kissing. I stepped back, and had the sudden almost undeniable urge to rip them apart. I felt like I was going to be sick.

"I - um - Clary, wait! You don't understand!" Raven yelled after me as I stalked past them to math class. I was sure she could take care of Jace _just fine_ without my help.


	5. Familiar Face

**Sorry for the really long wait, but like I said, school has started, and math homework is being a bitch.**

 **To AnnabethFray - thanks for the feedback, I'll try to stick with POV's for longer, but that's difficult for me (especially with Jace's). I know I didn't with this chapter, but for the next one I'll try to keep it to one each. Also to AnnabethFray - I'm glad someone noticed, I did do the the teachers names like that on purpose. ;)**

 **Please review, it means so much to me. Thanks guys!**

Raven POV

"I - um - Clary, wait! You don't understand!" I yelled after her, desperate. I saw her tiny form disappear into a classroom, and I rounded on Jace.

"You asshole! What the actual Hell?" I shouted. He raised a lazy eyebrow.

"Red looks jealous… you should have told her I would be happy to do the same for her," He said, grinning smugly. I grabbed his shoulder and rammed him into the lockers behind him. His face turned a little less smug and little more scared.

"Listen here, fucker," I snarled at him, "If you touch me one more _fucking time_ , I don't give a solitary _fuck_ who you are, I will shove my knife so far up your ass you'll be coughing up your own shit. And then," I said, my grip on his arm tightening, "I'm going to tear your _fucking_ head off. Now get to calculus," I snapped, shoving him away. He gathered his dropped books and rushed after Clary, looking terrified.

The bell rang before I got to class, causing the teacher to glare at me.

"How kind of you to join us, Miss…?"

"Blackthorn. Raven Blackthorn," I told her, not really in the mood to argue. She gestured for me to sit, so I did. The teacher - Mrs. Dodds - began a lecture on something I remembered a private tutor trying to teach me last year. I also remembered - and definitely didn't regret - puncturing the tutor's lung after he'd called me an "Arrogant, violence-obsessed dyke". I was much better at controlling my anger now.

Clary didn't look at me the whole period.

Clary POV

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Raven trying to catch my eye, but I stared stonily ahead. I didn't know why I was so angry; Jace and Raven could kiss whoever they wanted. I didn't know why I felt one of the strongest feelings of… just pure _wrong_ … that I'd ever felt. The only reaction I knew mildly close to this one was something that Will had talked about when he and Jem had been waiting on a job. He had said he'd seen his boyfriend (well, this was before they were together) kissing some random guy, and he'd said he'd felt like he was going to explode. But I couldn't possibly like Jace, could I? I mean, he was arrogant, obnoxious, sexist, and judging by the classes he took and the grades I'd seen in his file, not the most accurate gun in the holster.

By the time the bell rang, I shook myself, and knew that it wasn't fair to Raven. She hadn't done anything wrong, I didn't know what was going on with me, so when we got to German, I sat next to her and smiled.

"Clary, I can explain - it wasn't - "

"It's okay, I don't care. You didn't do anything wrong. You're perfectly able to kiss whoever you'd like."

"No - I mean, yes, but - it wasn't like that. _He_ kissed _me -_ I was going to -"

"Raven?"

"Yeah?"

"Let it go."

"Oh. Okay."

The bell rang, signaling the start of class. I was starting to remember why I hated school. The teacher had very prominent cheekbones and a very stern face, and she stood up to begin her lecture.

"Today is an immersion day, and as such, beginning at the end of my sentence, nobody is to talk a word of English."

I smirked. German was something both Raven and I sounded native in, along with French, Russian, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Polish, Dutch, Spanish, Czech, Cantonese (in her case) and Swahili (in mine). Raven knew some others, and we were both working on learning Korean and Romanian. Raven knew more languages than I did, but I learned them faster.

The rest of the class groaned at her pronouncement. She then began to talk about German parts of speech, and an upcoming essay on German culture (when it was announced the whole thing had to be written in German, the class started to complain again).

Already having learnt this when I was eight, I started doodling on the edge of my paper. By the time the bell rang, I had a small sketch of a young man's face. As I looked at it, it felt familiar. I gritted my teeth as I realized I had accidently drawn Jonathan. Again. Holding back tears, I crumpled up the paper and threw it in the trash, and followed Jace and Raven out of the door.

When I realised P.E. was next, I grinned and no longer felt like crying. I knew we were supposed to blend in, but that didn't mean Raven and I couldn't show off a little.

Raven POV

I arrived in the gym before Jace and Clary. I still felt terrible for kissing Jace, but I knew I shouldn't. Clary doesn't care who I kiss. I still wanted to shove Jace's head into a meat grinder though… How dare he just come up and kiss me!?

There was a large whiteboard set up in one corner of the gym with a small crowd of students in front of it. I jogged over to look at it, and saw that it was outlining units for the rest of the semester.

 **Unit 1: Track and Field**

 **Unit 2: Mixed Martial Arts**

 **Unit 3: Flexibility (Gymnastics, etc.)**

 **Unit 4: Soccer**

I grinned as I saw the second unit. Assuming each unit took about six weeks (as it said on the class syllabus Director Penhallow had placed in the case file) they would probably finish with job somewhere between the beginning of the third and fourth unit. I glanced around the gym, and saw a short yet muscular-looking man making his way toward the crowd of students, a whistle in his hand. I assumed he was the P.E. teacher.

He blew the whistle, and the noise lowered to a small murmur.

"Alright, cupcakes! Listen up! We're about to head outside for our half mile warmup. Once you're finished, find a partner and begin your pushup and sit up warmups! Remember, the quota for seniors is seventeen pushups and forty-five sit-ups! Let's head out," he yelled in a deep baritone.

Clary and I glanced at each other in confusion. Why were the quotas so low? I shrugged, and she rolled her eyes. We followed the rest of the class outside onto the track. I looked for Jace, seeing as he was who we were here for, and he caught my eye and winked. I flipped him off in reply. He chuckled, but then must have remembered my threat from the hallway, because he swallowed and looked away.

Jace POV

I gulped, remembering her threat from before. Shaking off the feeling of doubt, I swaggered up to Clary. The two freakishly good combatants may have humiliated me before, but this was my chance to get them back. I had not only the school record, but also the state record for the 800m and the mile. I was confident I could show both of them up, but they didn't know about that. They were smirking, and probably thought they could beat me easy. Nope. Not going to happen.  
Clary raised both of her eyebrows (It seemed like she couldn't raise one; I'd have to remember to tease her about it later) at me. I grinned.

"Hey Red. Wanna have a little wager?"

She looked disdainful as she replied, "Yes?"

"If you finish before me, I stop trying to kiss your friend, or co-worker, or whatever the Hell she is," I paused and saw her glare at me, and stifled a smirk, "But if _I_ win… you give up your CIA guard bullshit and come with me after school to Alec's. We'll play truth or dare. And you have to play."

Her expression didn't change, but I saw her eyes were full of confidence. I grinned. I knew I could beat her. We lined up at the start of the track, and waited for Mr. Hooch to blow the whistle.

Clary POV

This was going to be fun. I had almost laughed when Jace had proposed the race; I had seen in his file that he held the state record, but Raven and I were less than ten seconds away from the world record. However, as fun as it would be to see his face when we finished the half mile at 1:46, I knew that that was not exactly 'lying low', as Director Penhallow would put it. Still, I wanted to beat him, less because of the stakes and more because of pride. I knew that I would have to go with him anyway to protect him, and play to keep my cover. However, him not kissing Raven sounding pretty nice too.

I had seen in his file that his half mile record was 1:56. If it weren't for my sense of pride, I might have decided to go easy on him and let him win, to keep my cover. As it was, I would only try to beat him by three or four seconds. I saw Raven shoot me a questioning look, and I shook my head almost imperceptibly. I was already probably about to break the school record; If we both did, people might start suspecting something was off. Even though her record was a two seconds longer than mine, she would still beat everyone else here.

I knew her arrogance wouldn't allow her to be in the back, but I hoped she would have enough sense to stay in the middle.

Mr. Hooch blew his whistle, and I sprinted off in front of the rest of the class. I let Jace keep pace with me - it would be over too quickly if I didn't. He sneered at me arrogantly as he thought I was doing my best - he pulled ahead. I smirked behind his back, and let us get close to the finish line. We were forty meters away when I pulled ahead of him, grinning cockily at him. His face turned red, and he tried to push himself faster but couldn't.

I raced across the finish line and stood on the other side, smirking at him as I waiting arrogantly for him to finish. Mr Hooch was looking at me with shock on his meaty face.

"You're that new kid? Charlotte Fairy?"

I rolled my eyes. "Clarissa Frey," I replied cooly. He narrowed his beady little eyes.

"Frey, you're time was 1:54," said the coach, his face still full of awe. I looked expectantly at him, silently urging him to get to the point. "The school record - Hell, the _state_ record - is 1:56. How -"

I cut him off, "I ran track for my old school. I have a mile time of 4:29," I lied with fake pride. My actual record mile time was 3:58. The coach's eyebrows flew into his hair.

"Frey, you should join our track team. We're running low on strong female runners, and you would be a perfect fit," he offered, "practices are Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday after school, and meets are on Saturdays. What do you say?"

"I'll think about it," I lied again. Unless Jace was also on the track team, I probably wouldn't be allowed to, because I had to watch him. Also, I might accidentally break my cover by running to fast.

Raven, Alec, Maia, and a boy who looked vaguely familiar but I couldn't place finished soon after us. I headed inside and went to sit on the bleachers. Jace followed me, his expression incredulous.

Jace POV

How was this girl so fast!? When we were neck and neck in the beginning, I knew she was good, but I didn't understand how she had beaten me. I had the state record, for God's sake!

Once I finished, I leaned over, my hands on my knees. By the time Red's partner, Maia, Alec, and some dude who had started school yesterday finished, Clary was making her way to the bleachers. I followed her over.

"What the actual Hell was that!?" I asked her, more than a little pissed now that I could breathe again. She looked at me, her face expressionless.

"What was what?"

I growled, "How the Hell did you run that fast!? You beat me! _Me_!"

Raven POV

After seeing Clary's look, I knew that I would have to hang back. I smirked as I watched her begin the race with Goldilocks, knowing that she would win. I resolved to keep pace with Jace's friend Alec, to stop me from running to fast. As I did, I glanced at a nondescript boy just in front of him. I saw his face, and almost gasped in shock. It was _Viktor Korsakoff._ I narrowed my eyes. The last time I had seen him was four years ago in Moscow, when we were contracted for the same section of the Mafia.

After finishing the race, I followed him inside. Checking that no one was watching us, I grabbed him and shoved him into a janitor's closet, following him in. I locked the door, then turned on him. I forced him up against the wall, and he smiled slyly at me.

"Raven Morsmundi. It's been a while," he chuckled.

 **I hoped you liked it, I'll** ** _try_** **to have the next update on by next week, but I make no promises. Please follow, favorite, and review!**


	6. Friends, Old and Older

**Happy Halloween! Sorry that I took so long to update, I was having a weird block. Hey guys! So that was a tiny cliffhanger… This'll resolve it! The more reviews I get, the faster I'll update another chapter, so please follow, favorite, and review!**

Raven POV

"Korsakoff," I growled at him, "What are you doing here?" He sighed, feigning disappointment.

"Come now, Raven," He winked conspiratorially, "Aren't we on a first-name basis? We've worked together enough times. Although, I have to say," he frowned thoughtfully, "Nobody's heard from you for almost two years. You disappeared after the whole Japan debacle. Katya's devastated. She thinks you're dead."

My breath hitched at the mention of Katya. My gut twisted when Viktor said she was in pain. I shook myself, clearing my throat. "You didn't answer my question, _Viktor._ Why are you here?"

"To finish my education. I dropped out three years ago, remember?," He lied, smirking. I pressed my knife into his groin.

"Tell the truth, or my knife might just… slip," I whispered into his ear, pressing my knife harder. He swallowed, a bead of sweat running down his temple.

"The same reason as you, I'd wager," He said. I raised an eyebrow, waiting for him. "I was hired to kill the Herondale boy."

My face betrayed no emotion as I weighed my options. I could let him go and just report him to Director Penhallow, but he might kill the boy by then. I could threaten him into leaving the boy alone; Viktor was out of his league with me and he knew it. Or, I could kill him. Clary had just gotten me clean… I didn't want to relapse after six weeks unless it was absolutely necessary. Then something he had said caught my attention.

"You think I'm here to kill him?" I asked, my face a mask.

"Well… yeah?" He said it like it was obvious. "That kind of is what we do, Raven. Or are you after another target?"

Interesting. He didn't know that I had quit… _that_ profession. I wonder if anyone did. I thought of Katya again, and immediately felt guilty that I hadn't told her anything. I resolved that if Clary and I ever got sent on another Russia case, I would find her, and tell her what had happened.

I looked back at Viktor, debating what to do with him. Knowing that if he left this closet, he'd probably make straight for Jace, I made my decision.

"It was good to see you again Viktor," I told him as I drove my knife up into his heart. The adrenaline rushed to my heart, almost overwhelming me. I had forgotten how much I loved this feeling. The rush of danger, the power of holding someone else's life in your hands, and then ending it - there was nothing else like it. The only thing that came remotely close was riding Sexy, but even that paled in comparison. I breathed in deeply, grinning.

Knowing that if I just left the body here, it would send up all kinds of red flags to not only the local police department but to Pangborn, I pulled a lighter out of my pocket. I was well practiced in the art of hiding bodies, in covering up murder. I knew that Korsakoff was no novice, so the police would not be able to identify the body through dental records; he didn't have any.

I spied a jug of cleaning fluid on a shelf, and emptied it all over Korsakoff. I almost felt bad for killing him, but then I remembered that time the he was contracted to kill Katya and actually tried to do it. The only reason she was still alive was because I had threatened to kill him if he did.

I found a small, blue wax candle in one of the cardboard boxes and placed it next to his body, lighting the wick. Once most of it had burned down, it would light the body - and the rest of the closet, perhaps even the whole gym - on fire. I shut the closet door on my way out, and pulled out my lock-picking kit. Checking that there was still no one watching, I stuffed a jammer into the keyhole.

I returned to the rest of the class, where they were once again gathered in front of the whiteboard. I spotted Clary in the back of the crowd, her eyes locked on Jace's back. I silently fell in next to her. She glanced at me, a silent question in her eyes.

I shook my head slightly to tell her there was no emergency, then whispered, "Viktor Korsakoff. He was hired to kill Goldilocks. I took care of it." As if proving my point, the fire alarm went off. I assumed the candle had burnt down.

"Alright everyone, please line up and quietly exit the building, it's probably a surprise drill," Hooch yelled over the panicked din. No one seem convinced, especially once a tiny brunette pointed and screamed at the smoking coming from under the door to the janitor's closet.

Clary's POV

The fire alarm sounded, almost as if it were waiting for Raven's cue. She seemed different - more energized, less calm. I swallowed, knowing that she had killed Korsakoff. It wasn't the fact that she'd killed him that bothered me - Korsakoff had it coming - but the fact that she had had to do it. I was worried about her, worried that she'd lose control again. Sometimes when she started killing, she couldn't stop.

We followed Hooch out of the building, and I kept my eye on Jace. I couldn't have Raven kill a threat to him, only to have the boy die in a fire. He didn't really look afraid, just annoyed that he had been inconvenienced.

About half an hour later, the whole school was standing out on the field and the fire department had just pulled up. The gym looked past saving, but they made sure that it didn't spread to the rest of the school.

Several parents had arrived to pick up their children, or made calls to the teachers telling them to let the kids go home. Jace (and Raven and I) were released to the parking lot, and we got into our respective vehicles. I drove ahead of Jace and Raven tailed him on her motorcycle.

When we got back to the Herondale's mansion, I followed Raven up to our room after making sure Jace was going into his.

"What happened, Raven?" I asked her patiently. She sighed, and I noticed she looked like she was coming down from her high. Good. If she just got back to normal, without hurting anybody, then we would be fine, and could pretend like it never happened (after we reported into Magnus). She sat down and told me everything.

I stopped her halfway through her monologue. "Who's Katya?" I asked, curious. I didn't really know much about Raven's life before we met, before - before everything happened. It's not that she tried to keep it a secret, it's just that I didn't pry, and she didn't bring it up. I only knew that she had been orphaned, grew up with the Russian Mafia, and then had come to Japan to avenge her dead parents.

To my surprise, Raven blushed, and then swallowed hard. "She was my… urm… for lack of a better word, girlfriend, in Russia," she told me, her face heated. I raised my eyebrows, and felt an unfamiliar emotion rise up inside me. I shoved it down, not wanting to know what it was. "I loved her so much. I think I still might," Raven continued, looking wistful. I shoved the foreign emotion away again.

Just as I opened my mouth to reply, Raven's laptop beeped loudly, and the giant red words "Supreme High Overlord of Awesomeness" flashed on the screen. I rolled my eyes at Magnus's ridiculous pretentious username for VidCheck.

VidCheck was originally Magnus's idea. It's a secure face calling connection for the CIA only, kind of like a private FaceTime or Skype app. It was impossible to hack or listen into unless you had the server in the CIA control room, courtesy of Raven and her mad computer skills.

Raven crossed the room and accepted his call. Magnus's face popped onto her screen. The tips of his spiky hair was dyed midnight blue, and he had glittery silver gel in it (not to mention the silver glitter in his make-up).

"How's Blue Falcon 9/17 going, Biscuit?" He asked me cheerfully. "It's only been a day, but what with you and Pancake being together. You're like a magnet for trouble."

I rolled my eyes. Magnus had nicknames for everyone in the Clave. I was Biscuit, Raven was Pancake, Tessa was Angel, Will was Quacky McDuckface (don't ask), Jem was Chipper… we had learned to just roll with it.

"Well there's nothing really that needs noting… I mean, there was an assassin after him that was hiding in the school, but Raven took care of him," I reported. Magnus raised his eyebrows at that.

"I assume that was why there was a fire at Idris High?" He asked dryly. I nodded, not bothering to ask how he'd known. "Do we know the identity of the assassin?" He added.

I nodded, and Raven said, "Yes. Viktor Korsakoff, a Russian freelance assassin."

Magnus's face turned thoughtful. "Good to know… also, I assume you two have heard of the Black Dagger?"

Raven and I glanced at each other fearfully and swallowed.

"Why?" Asked Raven curtly. Magnus shrugged.

"Just something Tessa wanted me to ask… rumor has it the Black Dagger is back in business, so to speak."

I looked questioningly at Raven who shook her head slightly. "Do we know it's not a copycat killer?" She asked in the same tight tone. Magnus's responding smile was grim.

"We don't," he said, "But we'd better hope to God that it is."

The call ended.

Jace POV

I was laying back on my bed and took my phone out to call Seelie when Alec texted. It read _we're still on for tonight, right?_ Shit. I had forgotten about that, with the fire and all. In my eleven and a half years of going to school in Alicante, none of the schools had ever had a fire, and the first day I take my 'bodyguards' the gym burns down? I doubted it was a coincidence.

I texted back telling him I'd be there and I'd be bringing my 'family friends'. I didn't really think I needed them to protect me, but I was curious about them and wanted them to play Truth or Dare. Alec, Isabelle, Maia, Jordan and I (and whoever Isabelle's current boy toy was) often played games like this on Thursday nights. We would do it Fridays, but Jordan Alec and I had football practice.

I shrugged on my jacket and frowned, hearing voices talk next door. I would have shrugged it off as just Clary and Raven, but I heard a third, more masculine-sounding voice. Curious, I wandered into the hallway and leant against their wall, trying to listen in and yet also seem nonchalant, like I was just waiting for them to be done. All the voices went silent.

The door swung open and Clary sauntered out, Raven just behind her. Raven grinned.

"Trying to eavesdrop, Goldilocks?" I rolled my eyes, but didn't say anything, annoyed that I hadn't heard anything cool.

"I'm heading off to Alec's. I'm assuming you guys have to come?" I asked them, my hands in my pockets. Clary sighed, but nodded, and gestured for me to lead the way. I swaggered down the stairs and out the front door, calling a quick, "I'm going out!" To Hodge. I led the way out of the door and sat down in Annabel, my Lamborghini. I turned around to offer them a ride (I wanted to show off my car) but they were already both in Red's banged up Impala. I rolled my eyes at the piece of junk.

I led the way to Alec's house, who only lived about 15 minutes away. I slammed the car door as I stood and crunched my way up the gravel driveway of the Lightwood's house.

 **I hope you liked it! Have a fun Halloween! I'm gonna be fem Dean Winchester - whaddabout you guys?**

 **Also, Katya will be making an appearance, as will Sebastian, but not until much later. Please please please follow, favorite, and review! Thanks guys!**


	7. Truth or Dare

**Sorry it's been a month, I tried to do NaNoWriMo ( - it was a flop, if you're wondering. I'm just going to continue that as a separate story, and maybe post it on Wattpad if you're interested. I'll put the description in my bio), and then I got banned from watching Supernatural, so I threw a hissy fit and got banned from the computer all together. That sucked. But I'm back! Yay! Also, I don't know anything about kissing, having no personal experience, so whatever I write comes from other books… I apologize for the inaccuracy. So anywho, here's the next chapter! Please review, it means the world to me!**

Raven POV

I followed Goldilocks up the steps to his friend's massive house, still puzzling Magnus's news. It was impossible, it had to be a copycat or a fraud. I pursed my lips, wondering why someone would pretend to be the Black Dagger, and why they would choose now to start using the name. I hadn't been the Black Dagger for over two years.

The door opened to Alec, who immediately scolded Jace for being late. Clary gripped my hand tightly before following Jace into the house. I trailed after them, already missing her hand in mine.

Alec lead us through the hallway and into a side room, where Isabelle, her haughty looking boyfriend, Maia, and Jordan were already sitting on the floor in a broken circle. There was a bottle of vodka in the center, and seven or eight shot glasses. I hid a grin; I could drink these amateurs into the ground. I turned and saw Clary's face redden slightly, and I smirked at her. Clary was a real lightweight;; one shot and she was hammered.

"Jace… I see you brought your friends," sneered Isabelle, looking at me with distaste. I ignored her.

"Well, the more the merrier, right?" He asked rhetorically, eyeing Clary. I scowled slightly. Clary saw my expression and chuckled lightly.

"I assume you know how to play?" Alec asked Clary and I. We nodded simultaneously, and he gestured to Isabelle to start.

"Raven, truth or dare?" She asked me, a nasty little smile on her face.

"Dare," I told her in a monotone.

She looked a little put out before saying, "I dare you to take three shots." Jace, Jordan, and Maia raised their eyebrows, clearly expecting her to back out or get super drunk.

 _Man her game is weak,_ I thought, hiding a smirk. I reached for the vodka bottle and a glass, feeling Clary giggling silently beside me. I poured a shot and drank it. I repeated this two more times, not breaking eye contact with Isabelle. Her eyes grew to the size of dinner plates, seeing that I wasn't even feeling a little buzzed.

 _Serves her right for trying to outdrink a Russian,_ I thought snidely.

"I - uh - I guess it's your turn," Jace told me, his face covered with surprise. I rolled my eyes. This was such an immature game. However, looking around the circle of shocked expressions, I had to admit it had it's perks.

"Truth or Dare… Alec?" I asked him. He swallowed before replying his Adam's apple bobbing in this throat.

"Truth," he said.

"When was the last time you had a one night stand?" I asked. I was honestly curious; out of him, Jace, and Isabelle, he seemed the least whorish. His face reddened, and he murmured something I couldn't make out.

"Sorry?"

"Four months ago," he mumbled quietly, blushing. Jace raised an eyebrow.

"Dude," he said seriously, "You need to get laid.

Two shots, a very tipsy Isabelle, and an egged neighbor's house later, it was Isabelle's turn again.

"Alec," she said before hiccuping, "Truth or Dare?"

"Dare," he told her. She smirked and hiccuped again.

"I dare you," 'hic', "to kiss Raven," she told him.

"But I'm gay," Alec and I said in synchronization. Isabelle rolled her eyes and gestured for them to continue. Alec shot his sister a glare and leaned over to kiss me. He did, and it wasn't gross, it was just kind of awkward and uncomfortable.

Alec then asked Jace, who chose dare.

"I dare you to have a drinking contest with Raven; four more shots -" (Jace had taken one earlier in the game) - "and whoever walks in the straightest line wins."

Jace smirked arrogantly at me, clearly forgetting the ability to hold my liquor that I had demonstrated earlier. I smiled innocently back and heard Isabelle hiccup again. Jace poured himself a shot and downed it, his cocky expression taunting me. I almost backed out to save Jace a shred of dignity, but then remembered how pissed off I'd felt when he'd kissed me. Then I thought " _Eh, fuck it,"_ and downed my own.

I matched Jace shot for shot, and by the third one, Jace's cheeks were getting pretty rosy.

Jace POV

" _What the Hell? How is she doing this?"_ I thought to myself as I drank my third shot. I could feel the clouds of drunkenness start to descend over my mind. As I took my last shot, I turned and saw Clary silently laughing at me, and I felt myself blush. Did I look stupid? Was that why?

Then I shook myself and remembered. I'm _Jace Herondale._ I never look stupid. I turned back to Raven, who had just taken her last shot. My eyes widened as I saw that she looked barely tipsy. Suddenly I couldn't remember what I was supposed to do after this. My mind felt heavy, but my body felt numb. I could barely feel a thing, and I _liked it._ I hadn't been this wasted since… I don't think I'd been this wasted since Isabelle's birthday party. Given, that was only two months ago, but that was a long time for me to go without getting hammered.

I felt someone pulling me up to a standing position, and then Raven and I were shoved forward. I could barely stand, but there was a wall maybe ten feet away, so I staggered toward it. Raven just _walked_ for it. She didn't even falter _once._

" _She's gotta be a machine,"_ I thought privately. Although I knew for a fact that she was a CIA agent, and according to Dad, that's close enough.

I was almost to the wall when I tripped over something warm and furry. I fell onto the beige carpet, my nose and palms burning. Something loud hissed and scratched by heel, and I heard a distant, "Oh my god! Church! Are you okay?" Followed by the sound of hysterical laughter. I rolled over groaning, only to see Isabelle's cat in her arms hissing at me. I heard a loud laughter and one quiet, concerned voice before I heard nothing at all.

Clary POV

Jace had been out for about ten minutes before I got fed up. I had actually been enjoying the game, because I loved this type of risky pastime. Raven, Magnus, Tessa, Will, Jem and I usually played every Saturday night that we were off duty (and Raven, Will, Magnus and I sometimes played while we were on duty… Tessa and Jem cared too much about following Director Penhallow's rules).

I was a jug of cold water away from waking Jace up myself (Jordan and Alec refused to play without him, Raven and I had to keep our cover so no war story recounts, and so things got pretty boring pretty quickly) when he yawned and sat up, his eyes squinting into the ceiling light. He hadn't slept long enough to stave off the alcohol or be hungover, so he was acting similar to Isabelle. This was why Raven and I had made a pact, because I never wanted to be too drunk to function. If someone dared me to drink, she would 'accidentally' break the alcohol bottle or think of an emergency excuse to leave.

Jace shuffled back to our mismatched circle (now more of an oval) and yawned again. "Who's turn is it now?" He asked thickly.

"Yours," everyone else chanted in unison. Jace glanced around the oval, his eyes catching on me. I groaned inwardly.

"Clary," he said, still drunk, "Truth or dare?" I bit my lip. If I picked dare, he could make me do all sorts of embarrassing things… but I was no pansy. However, if I picked truth, since he knew who we really were… well, not even the CIA knew who we really were. He knew who the CIA thought we were, so he could make me talk about that. He was certainly drunk enough to try. It's not like I would have given any CIA secrets away for a _truth or dare game,_ but I'd like to avoid that debacle before any clean-up was need.

"Dare," I answered. He grinned cockily, and I saw Alec put his head in his hands.

"I dare you to let me kiss you," he said. I grimaced in annoyance, but supposed it could have been worse. I shrugged, and he crawled over to sit next to me me. I could feel Raven tensing, waiting for me to give her the panic symbol to get us out. I wanted to show Jace that I wasn't afraid of him… but I don't know why I cared. He wasn't even anyone important; he was just another out of hundreds of cases.

He leaned forward, and I almost backed out again. I don't know why I was so nervous; I'd done this before when I'd had to seduce an Irish mob leader, or when Raven and I had gone undercover with Tessa in a Mexican bull-fighting ring (long story). However, I'd done it with people I despised - for some reason, I didn't despise Jace. I guess when you've lived with my family and worked with terrorists, rapists, and other scum of the streets, a stuck-up whiny rich brat doesn't seem bad at all.

His lips touched mine, and I closed my eyes tightly. However, despite myself, I found myself kissing him back, and when he went to deepen the kiss, I almost let him. I was lost in the feeling; I'd never felt _this_ kissing someone before.

It was always a necessary pressing together of skin, nothing more. But this… this was trepidation and electric shocks, lightning and brass.

I almost let him deepen the kiss, when Maia cleared her throat conspicuously. I suddenly realized where I was and jerked backwards. I swallowed uneasily. I couldn't let that happen again. Rule one the CIA: Don't get attached to your cases.

I leant back into Raven, whose spine was ramrod straight. Her jaw was clenched, and she was staring stonily ahead. I didn't understand; It was just a game. If it were up to me, I would never have kissed him.

I thought back to when Jace had kissed Raven, and the strange, unfamiliar emotion that had overpowered me. Maybe she was having the same feeling? Maybe it's natural to feel that way if someone you trust with your life, someone who you would do and give anything for, starts to have feelings for another person.

The game continued, with Raven never loosening her muscles. Jordan had Meliorn and Alec kiss, Maia, had to tell the story of losing her virginity, and Raven and I watched from the sidelines. We were both so uncomfortable that I could tell Raven was about to feign alcohol poisoning to get us out, when the door to the living room flew open and a tall, sickly looking man opened stepped into the room.

"Ragnor?" Isabelle asked, giggling. I assumed he was their butler; all of these rich, stuck-up families seemed to have unnecessary men stumbling around to open doors and take coats. Jordan belatedly snatched the bottle of vodka and hid it underneath a nearby recliner.

"Miss Isabelle, your mother has informed me that if you two don't get rid of your friends and stop the noise in the next ten minutes, she will cut you off from your credit card spending for the next month."

Isabelle gasped, affronted, while simultaneously trying to stand without collapsing onto the nearby sofa. Maia and Jordan shrugged and shouldered their way past Ragnor and out the front door. Meliorn, with one glance from Isabelle, quickly followed.

Ragnor left, with Isabelle gesturing for Jace, Raven and I to do the same. We hurried out of the building, and Raven swung her leg over her motorcycle and started it. I followed Jace into his obnoxious sports car, having not brought Baby because we consistently switched up our routine.

Two minutes later, I was regretting not taking my own car. I had forgotten that Jace had been drinking; I was being reckless. However, since I hadn't taken a sip of the vodka, I managed to convince him to let me drive.

We were twelve minutes away from Jace's house when Raven spoke into my earpiece, "There's something stuck to my tires."

There was someone following us.

 **Thank you so much for reading, I'm REALLY sorry that it's been so long. I'll try to have the next chapter out before 2017?... Maybe?**

 **Please please follow favorite, and** ** _especially_** **review, it means the world to me. Thanks!**


	8. Not An Emergency

… **I should probably just not set updating goals. It's not like I ever achieve them. How was everyone's break? Please please please review! It really helps me out!**

Raven's POV

I had taken Clary's Impala because one of us had to be in the same vehicle as Jace (we were slacking on the way here) and she sensed that I had a lower tolerance for him than she did.

We turned left and I saw the nondescript black van do the same in my wing mirror. That confirmed what I had suspected for the past three minutes - we were being followed.

"There's something stuck to my tires," I said quietly, knowing the microphone in my earpiece would pick it up.

"Acknowledged. Fight or flight?" she replied, her tone steady. We had done this hundreds of times. I glanced back into my wing mirror as we waited at a stop light and saw that the van was only four cars behind us. I scrutinized it, and saw that it had an ornate sword with a snake wrapped around the blade stamped onto the hood. I narrowed my eyes.

"Dammit, it's the Italians. Fight," I finished, seeing no other choice. While both Clary and I were excellent getaway drivers and could lose almost anyone in a busy city, the Italians were just as good at following. Plus, Jace was at the wheel, and I had no hope that he harboured a hidden skill for street-racing.

"Wolf maneuver?" She asked. I bit my lip, then gave her the go ahead. The light turned green, and she turned right onto a deserted street. I followed, and we started to slow down. It was nearly unnoticeable, and the black van followed us down the street. The street narrowed, and I pushed the brakes down suddenly, turning the wheel sharply to the right. The car skidded, and turned perpendicular to the road, blocking the way between the van and Jace's car.

I pushed the door open and jumped out, grabbing a shuriken from the inside of my jacket. The doors of the van opened, and two men with small hand guns aimed them at me. I flicked my wrist, and the man on my left slumped forward onto the open van door. His accomplice opened fire, and I ducked beneath Clary's car door.

 _She's going to kill me,_ I thought silently as I heard bullets hitting the hood and doors of the Impala. I slipped a knife from my belt and threw it into the front tire of their car; however, as I ducked back into the Impala, I heard the air from my own tires escaping.

 _Damn it,_ I thought, annoyed. _Clary's going to have a fit._

I ducked underneath another set of gunshots as I kicked down the door of the warehouse next to the car. I fled into the darkened building

I climbed a wooden post as I saw two silhouettes pursue me into the warehouse. They scrutinized the inside of the building while I sat in the rafters.

"Trovala!" shouted one, and they split up. I grinned. The Italian Mafia didn't really understand the concept of trusting each other, and as such, the notion 'safety in numbers' wasn't really their forte.

I was ready to slip out the door, and just leave them looking - when one of them flicked on a flashlight and I saw the tattoo on their neck. My fists tightened around the pole I was holding to keep balance, and I gasped silently.

I hadn't seen that tattoo since Japan. I swallowed, narrowing my eyes, as the man turned to me and I nearly fell off the rafter as I recognized him.

"Il boss non sarà felice se lei scappa, e quando il boss non è felice, lui diventa violento. Non voglio che ciò accada," the first man said. I frowned, confused. I spoke Italian, so I understood what they were saying. That wasn't what confused me. What confused me was the fact that they'd called their boss a 'he'. The head of the Italian mafia was Camille Belcourt; I had feelers out everywhere, and unless she had died in the past eight hours, they had to be talking about someone else. They _could_ be talking about Raphael Santiago, the second in command… I shook myself. I was overreacting, they were probably thinking about Santiago.

As the tallest of the two men hurried towards a pile of crates beneath me, I drew two long knives from their hidden sheathes inside of my boots. As he passed underneath the rafter I was balanced on, I leapt down and landed on his back.

"Aargh!" He yelled, and I heard his companion running back to the source of the noise. Grinning, I slammed a blade into the bottom of the man's back, severing his spinal cord. His yells ceased.

The dead man's companion stopped suddenly, taking in the scene of me kneeling on the corpse of his former colleague. He yelled something unintelligible, and raised his gun, aiming at my face. I merely smirked at him, recognizing his rookie mistake. He had a gun - there was no reason to get within five feet of me. He should have shot me before.

I lept up from my kneeling position and before he could register his surprise, I hit the inside of his elbow with all of the force of my upper body. His arm folded, and he dropped his gun instinctively. I drove my remaining knife into his neck before he could comprehend what I had done.

I wiped her blades on the man's jeans and slipped them back into their hidden sheathes in my boots. My heart was beating at fifty miles per hour, and I breathed in deeply. The adrenaline was rushing through my veins. And I had thought killing _Viktor_ had felt good…

I checked my surroundings. After determining that there were no remaining Italians, I turned my earpiece back on.

"Morning Star? This is Killjoy, the Italians are gone," I said quietly.

"Roger that, Killjoy. This is Morning Star. The merchandise and I are headed to the eagle's nest. Olympus is expecting a check-in soon."

"Roger. On my way," I replied, exhaling a silent breath of relief. It didn't matter how many more dangerous situations we had been in, I was always worried about Clary, and I knew she felt the same about me, even if she didn't say it. In this line of work, it didn't matter how good you were; you never live to retire. You _get_ retired.

I headed back into the alleyway to inspect the destroyed remains of Clary's Impala. It didn't look that bad…

The car started to smoke. _Oh, who am I kidding. It's completely wrecked,"_ I thought as I turned tail and ran. I ran down the street, glancing sideways looking into each alleyway. I stopped as I saw what looked like a drug deal going down. I stalked down that alley in the shadows, as a short man took a wad of cash from a shivering young girl. The man looked up as I came closer; His eyes swept over me, and accepting that I didn't look anything like a cop, he raised his eyebrow at me.

"Need a hit?" He asked, his oily demeanor putting me off. The girl ran off with a small bag of powder. I pulled a gun from my waistband and aimed it at him.

"WHOA! Easy! I don't want no trouble," he stammered as he backed up slowly. There was an ugly red motorcycle leaning against a graffitied building.

"The keys. To the bike," I asked coldly. He nodded, terrified, and slowly drew them from his back pocket. He tossed them, and when I gestured at him with the gun, he turned and ran.

I hopped onto the shitty bike and turned the keys into the ignition. I sped out of the alley and down the road to Jace's mansion. The motorcycle was nothing against Sexy, but it was functional. I weaved my way through traffic (probably getting the dealer a few tickets in the process) before arriving at the enormous house.

Clary's POV:

As soon as Raven turned the car to hold them off, I shoved Jace into the passenger's seat and started to drive. He protested weakly, but was too in shock of being shot at to really do anything. I turned sharply, executing standard German get-a-way driving maneuvers. I knew they weren't necessary, because Raven was holding them off, but it never hurt to take precautions.

It took us longer than usual to get to his house because of all the extra care I was taking. Jace breathed heavily; I had knocked him out a few minutes ago because he couldn't stop babbling and stammering on about being attacked.

"Morning Star? This is Killjoy, the Italians are gone," came a Raven's voice from my earpiece. I sighed silently in relief; I knew she would get the job done, but that didn't stop me from worrying about her.

"Roger that, Killjoy. This is Morning Star. The merchandise and I are headed to the eagle's nest. Olympus is expecting a check-in soon," I replied. Raven responded, and I heard a click as she turned her earpiece back off so she could concentrate on driving or whatever she was doing.

"Killjoy? Morning Star?"

I cursed silently. Jace had woken up, rubbing his temple where I had punched him.

"Yes. Morning Star is my code name for when we talk over comms; Killjoy is Raven's. You should probably have those memorized for an emergency," I told him. I pressed my lips together, inwardly chuckling at the black ironic humor that was Raven's code name. We had gotten to chose our own, and both Raven and my code names had secret meanings. Magnus just thought we were being drama queens. Then again, his codename was High Warlock of Brooklyn, so I didn't think he really got a vote on what was 'dramatic'.

"Wait," said Jace, his expression that of one who had just realized something trepidatory, "So this _wasn't_ an emergency?" He asked, incredulous. I shook my head.

"Definitely not. It's not an emergency until there is real danger of one of us dying," I told him as we pulled up into his extravagant driveway. I got out of the car and slammed the car door before I could hear his reply.

I stood waiting on the front steps until he entered his house. After one more glance around the parking lot, I followed him inside. Jace, still muttering slightly, grabbed a coke from the kitchen and headed upstairs to his room.

I started up the stairs after him, biting my lip. The Italians hadn't interfered with anything to do with the CIA in years. That they would get involved now, for something so petty, was suspicious. And they had sent an entire van! It was more their style to set up a sniper near his school and shoot him from far away.

As I entered the bedroom I shared with Raven, I made my way over to the desk and opened the laptop, turning on the feed to the cameras in Jace's room. I kept my earpiece in in case Raven ran into trouble on her way here.

A few minutes later, the door opened and Raven stalked in, her face and hands smudged with blood. Without saying a word, she nodded to me and moved to the ensuite bathroom to wash up.

I waited for her, and as she left the bathroom she gave me a short hug before opening VidCheck. Magnus answered immediately, and we recounted what had happened.

"Hmm…" Magnus said thoughtfully. "Pangborn must really want the Herondale boy dead, if word has gotten out to freelancers such as Korsakoff _and_ the Italian Mafia. Well, keep up the good work," he said as he winked, before shutting down the connection. Raven turned to me, a worried expression on her face.

"Clary, I… there's something I didn't tell Magnus," she said. I frowned; If she hadn't told Magnus, it must have to do with our lives before the CIA. I gestured for her to continue.

"Well, one of the attackers wasn't actually Italian Mafia. I mean - he spoke Italian, but I recognized him. From the Circle. It was Malachai. Sebastien's old bodyguard."

My stomach filled with lead as I realized the implications of what Raven had just told me.

 **Again, I'm really sorry that I didn't update sooner. Please forgive me, and favorite, follow, and most importantly, review! I can't get better if I don't get feedback, it's super helpful.**

 **What do you think just happened? What will happen next? Let me know what I can add! Love you guys!**


	9. Evacuate the Vatican

**Hey guys! I'm alive! I know I'm REALLY late, but... oh well. Updating later lets me give you normal-length chapters. I hope you enjoy, and please please PLEASE review! (See A/N at the bottom for announcement/poll thingy).**

Clary POV

If Malachai was here… he never left Sebastian alone. If Malachai was here, then Sebastian was either dead, or he was here too.

"I think I'm going to be sick," I professed quietly, my hands gripping the edge of the table. My knuckles were slowly going white. Raven gripped the hilt of her knife tightly as she let out a long breath and a shaky laugh.

"We knew it was too good to be true. The fact that he didn't look for us, all that time. He's just caught up," Raven said grimly. I nodded. It was true; we'd been spending borrowed time since we came to America. But we were good; we could run away again, this time farther; this time we wouldn't make a name for ourselves, we would lie low -

"Clary. It's not going to work. I know what you're thinking, and it's not going to work. They're too good."

"But we're good too -" I argued desperately "- we can start fresh, go to Latvia and live as hermits, they'll never find us -"

"Clary stop. Do you honestly believe he'll ever stop looking for you?"

I dropped down onto the bed, my face in my hands. I let out a long sigh, and shook my head. He wouldn't. He would search every corner of the Earth, and it might take years, but eventually, he would find us.

"What do you propose we do? Just wait for him to kill you, and take me back?"

Raven took my hands in hers and looked my straight in the eye.

"I say we fight."

I stood up straight, and swallowed before nodding at Raven. She embraced me tightly, and offered to take the first watch. I shook my head.

"We'll both do it. I don't want - Just - I need you, tonight," I admitted. She didn't say anything, just switched the monitor to the camera's outside Jace's room and pulled a bar of chocolate from her duffle bag. She cozied up under the covers of her bed, and I followed her, hugging her tightly.

Jace POV

I snapped the science textbook shut. Chemistry was the only subject that I didn't despise, so I always did Mr. Smith's homework first. I sipped my coke while leaning against the wall. I was still in a mild state of shock, having never been in a high-speed car chase before. If Raven didn't consider that an emergency, I did not want to see their definition of a true crisis. Bored, I decided to revert to an admittedly childish but still enjoyable pastime of mine; eavesdropping. I'm sure that as CIA agents, Clary and Raven had some very interesting conversations on their own. Plus, I still wasn't convinced they weren't secretly fucking each other, and I wanted proof (I had a $50 bet with Jordan).

I didn't have any high-tech spying equipment, but the girls were in the room next to me, so I decided it couldn't hurt to go old-fashioned. I pulled a glass from my bedside table and pressed it against the wall, my ear pressed on the bottom of the glass.

I couldn't hear anything at first, and then only muffled voices. But after manipulating the placement of the glass on the wall, I managed to hear Raven's voice clearly.

"... Tell Magnus," she said. I frowned slightly - who was Magnus? There was a pause, and then she continued. "Well, one of the attackers wasn't actually Italian Mafia. I mean - he spoke Italian, but I recognized him. From the Circle. It was Malachai. Sebastian's old bodyguard."

My frown deepened, as I barely understood anything that she was talking about. Clary started talking again, and I hastily started listening again so I wouldn't miss anything.

"I think I'm going to be sick," she said.

"We knew it was too good to be true. The fact that he didn't look for us, all that time. He's just caught up," replied Raven. At this, I paused. Someone - this Malachai dude, maybe - was looking for them… I wondered if they had pissed him off on one of their previous CIA jobs.

I put my ear back to the glass and cursed myself for missing something Raven had said. Clary was replying.

"But we're good too, we can start fresh - go to Latvia and live as Hermits, they'll never find us -" She sounded desperate. I wondered how powerful this guy could be if he could make these two sound so scared.

"Clary stop. Do you honestly believe he'll ever stop looking for you?" Raven asked Clary. I raised an eyebrow. So this guy - assuming it was the Malachai dude - was only after Clary. That was interesting… and weird. From what I'd seen of the two agents, they were nigh on inseperable.

"What do you propose we do? Just wait for him to kill you, and take me back?" Clary asked frantically. At this point, I was scared. Someone wanted to kill Raven? If the car chase hadn't made my situation clear to me, this conversation sure did. This wasn't a game… or maybe they knew I was listening, and were just trying to scare me? They had known when I was eavesdropping before… I sighed in relief. That had to be it, so I put the glass back on my nightstand and flopped onto my bed. Not soon after, I fell asleep.

Raven POV:

We lay there, hugging and eating chocolate, as we whispered stories to each other. We laughed over past jobs, argued over which Doctor was better, (I maintained that it was nine, but Clary said it was eleven, no contest), made fun of Will's abnormal fear of mallards, and bitched about Jace's manners. It was peaceful, and we could almost forget about Sebastien.

" - and then," Clary continued, "We had to eat it all! How else were we supposed to keep our cover?" She asked rhetorically, laughing.

I snorted. "That sounds utterly disgusting," I said flatly, "I'm damn glad I was sick that week." Sick may have been under-exaggerating - I had broken three ribs and an ankle getting away from the Triad earlier that week.

Clary wiped a tear of mirth from her eye, before snuggling closer to me. I closed my eyes tightly, before thinking, _Platonic. It's completely platonic - Clary's straight for fuck's sake!_

"Raven? You okay?" Clary asked, probably concerned at my expression. I opened my eyes and hugged her tightly. I knew she hadn't forgotten - I could see it in her eyes.

"What are we going to do, Raven?" Clary asked me, her voice broken. I squeezed her hand.

"Whatever we have to," I replied grimly. If it kept Clary alive and out of Sebastien's clutches, I was prepared to do anything. _Anything,_ morals be damned.

After a while, I started to hear Clary's quiet snores. I held her close, watching the cameras.

 _The Next Morning_

I shook Clary awake gently, seeing as we only had twenty minutes before we had to get Jace to school.

"Shhh five more minutes," She mumbled, turning over. I chuckled lightly before moving to the end of her bed and tickling her feet. She twitched, before kicking up suddenly. If I hadn't had such fast reflexes, I would have been launched backwards. As it was, I avoided her foot and she sat up, blowing a strand of fiery red hair out of her face.

I almost laughed at the look of indignation on her face. She rolled out of bed, hitting the floor with a soft thump. "Ow…" she moaned quietly. I rolled my eyes; Clary was _not_ a morning person, not when she had the option not to be.

Ten minutes later, I smirked inwardly at Clary's shirt. She had had stolen my Black Veil Brides shirt - and I had to admit, seeing her in my clothes definitely made my heart skip a beat. She slung her school bag over her shoulder and followed me out the door.

We grabbed a banana each and headed downstairs. We grabbed Jace on the way, and it was my turn to be in the same vehicle as Jace. Clary frowned at the empty space where her Impala had previously sat, and turned to me.

"You never did tell me what happened to Baby," she said. I scratched the back of my head sheepishly.

"It… um, well…" I gulped.

She narrowed her eyes dangerously. "Raven?"

I smiled guiltily, and I could tell she was about to say something further when Jace popped his head out the window of his car and whined, "So, are you coming or not?"

"We'll finish this later," Clary whispered firmly, a foreign glint in her eyes. I nodded nervously before slipping in beside Jace as Clary took Sexy.

"I'm driving," I told Jace in a voice that brooked no argument. Or at least, it would have if Jace hadn't been such an insolent, spoiled brat.

"But -"

I eyed him coldly. "In light of yesterday's events, do you really want to be the one in the driver's seat if we're attacked?" Jace scowled in response and slumped down into the passenger's seat.

Twenty minutes later, we were heading to English. I spent the entire class period trying to plan a confrontation with Sebastien - none of them ended well. If he was smart, he would have me killed by planting a sniper and shooting me from across the street. However, I knew him. I'd spent _far_ too much time in his company, and I knew that he would want to gloat - he would want me to know that I'd lost, to know that I couldn't save Clary.

In every scenario I imagined, someone died. Ideally, I would play on his pride until he fought me in hand-to-hand combat, which might give Clary enough time to run. I held out no hope that I would beat him, but if I could hold him off long enough, she might be able to get away. Remembering our sparring session in Japan reassured me a little. I would be able to buy her at least twenty minutes, and with a twenty minute start she could haul a cab and be halfway across the city - she could be all the way in Newport by the time he noticed she was gone.

I would never tell Clary that I was planning this; I had told her we would fight, and that's exactly what I intended to do. However, I knew that we couldn't win. He was too good - the only way we'd ever beat him at anything was if… I shot up suddenly. That was it!

"Ms. Blackthorn, do you have something to share with the class?" Asked Mrs. Skeeter, raising an eyebrow.

Unphased, I turned Clary and mouthed silently, "Evacuate the Vatican." Her eyes widened and she nodded, before I rushed from the classroom as Mrs. Skeeter was mid-sentence.

Clary POV

I spent the nearly the whole class period doodling on my notebook. We weren't here to get good grades; we had already graduated, so actually paying attention to the teacher, beyond just fitting in, was pointless. I was nearly on the point of taking out my actual art sketchbook when Raven stood up suddenly. Before I could ask her what was wrong, the teacher reprimanded her. Raven took no notice, simply turning to me and mouthing, "Evacuate the Vatican."

My eyes widened in surprise. We hadn't used that code phrase since the job in Siberia - I shivered at the mere memory of the winters there. I had never been so cold.

I waited a couple minutes for Mrs. Skeeter to forget about Raven before I slipped a note onto Jace's desk and hunched over with fake pain.

"Ow," I moaned, "Ah, that hurts…" I used my handy talent and a tear of 'pain' leaked from my left eye. "Mrs. Skeeter," I whined, "My stomach really hurts… I think I'm going to throw up."

Blowing a strand of flyaway blond hair from her face, she nodded impatiently.

"I'll take her," said Jace quickly. I sighed internally with relief - he had understood the note.

We made our way out of the classroom and down the hall before I stood up straight again.

"What's this about?" Jace asked, his annoyingly arrogant tone evident in his voice.

"To be honest," I sighed wearily, "I have absolutely no clue."

 **So I hope you enjoyed it! Um, so anyway... I have a question. Would you guys rather I continue this until it's finished, or... I could start writing about their backstory (i.e., what really happened in Japan, Raven's life with the Russian Mafia, how Clary and Raven met, etc.) and alternate between publishing a chapter of this and publishing a chapter of that? Please let me know, I can't decide. I love you guys, you really mean a lot, and please please PLEASE review!**


	10. The Leader of the Russian Mafia

**So this is kind of short because it's like an interlude-ish thing, and I wanted to give you something. Also, some of you have been wondering whether or not there's gonna be any Clace, and when. So to you guys - probably. But in all honesty, this is not a romance novel. This story is not about kisses and nose-boops and marriage and children etc. This is about pain and joy and rage. This is about life and loss and death and morals. However… I do have an endgame in mind, so bear with me. (If you have any specific requests about side-pairings (i.e., if you want Magnus and Alec to meet etc.) then don't hesitate to pm me or leave a review.)**

I **f something is bolded, it's spoken in Russian.**

Raven's POV

Clary and Jace met me just down the hall, and we headed toward the library. I had stolen a couple of fake hall passes from the office that morning, so we would have an excuse if we were caught ditching.

"What happened?" Clary asked me as we hurried down the hallway.

I scowled at Jace before replying with, "I didn't think you were going to bring him." Jace glowered at me, but I ignored him. Clary grabbed my arm and stopped me, annoyance dancing in her eyes.

"He's our charge. What if someone had been waiting for us to leave before they ganked him?" She snapped. I rolled my eyes. I knew that, and she knew that I knew. I just didn't want him to be here for this.

We got to the library and hid in the back, behind the shelves. Unless someone was scouring the entire library looking for us, or was _really_ into biographies about famous plumbers, we wouldn't be interrupted. I turned to Clary.

"I told you we could fight. Well - I have an idea," I told her, eyeing Jace suspiciously. Clary's eyebrows raised, and she gestured for me to go on.

"Remember Katya?" I asked her, and she nodded. For a moment, I thought I saw a flash of some unfamiliar emotion in her eyes, but it must have been a trick of the light.

"Well, word from our -" I glanced at Jace again - "Word from my _friends_ in Russia, is that she rose to the top. Like, the very, _very_ top."

Clary's eyes widened. "You think - will she help us?"

I swallowed thickly. "She, um… I think so. It's our best chance - what harm could asking do?" I asked, somewhat desperately.

Clary's eyes narrowed. "Quite a lot of harm indeed," she muttered, but she nodded, conceding anyway. "But you're right - it's our best chance."

I took a deep breath, took out my untraceable cell phone, and dialed the number. My fingers shook slightly in trepidation, at the thought of hearing Katya's voice for the first time in years. The phone rang twice, before it was answered.

" **Password**?" Came a gruff voice. They changed it every three and a half weeks, so I had no idea what the current one was.

" **Tell Katya that Raven Morsmundi wants to speak with her** ," I replied, hoping it would be enough to get Katya on the phone. There was a muffled argument, and someone new answered.

" **I don't know who you are, or why you are pretending to be Raven, but when I find you, you will regret the day you ever called this line** ," came a cold, familiar voice. I nearly cried. It was Katya. I had forgotten how much I loved the sound of her voice.

" **Katya wait! It's me, Raven**!"

There was silence at the end of the line, and there was a quiet 'click' as she hung up. I choked back a sob and closed my eyes tightly, not willing to let Jace see the tears threatening to spill. I swallowed, before turning back to Clary.

Her eyes were full of sympathy, but she merely said, "Try again." I nodded, and took a deep breath, preparing myself. I hadn't been ready to hear her voice again, after nearly three years. I re-dialed the number.

" **If you don't hang up now, I'm going to hunt you down and toss you into the Volga** ," Katya said, her voice aflame with fury.

" **When I managed to beat you in training for the first time, you invited me out for dinner. And… and as we overlooked the river, you told me that you loved me for the first time,** " I said hoarsely. There was a long pause.

" **Raven?** " Katya whispered, her voice breaking. My gut twisted as I heard the pain in her voice.

" **It's me, Katya. It's me,** " I assured her quietly.

Jace POV

To be honest, I had no idea why I was being dragged into the back of the library. In class, I had been passed a note that merely said, "Play along and get us out of here," so I had assumed that we would be having a threesom in the janitor's closet or something - that was _so_ not what was happening.

Clary and Raven were in an argument - I think they were talking about calling for help. Then Raven called someone, and she started speaking in _Russian._ I mean, I knew they were spies, but who actually speaks Russian?

Whoever Raven had been calling must have hung up on her, and Raven didn't look to happy about it. In fact, she looked a couple seconds away from setting fire to the school - again.

"Try again," Clary told her. Raven nodded and redialed. I strained my ear, trying to hear what the person on the other end was saying. Then I kicked myself for my stupidity, because I couldn't speak Russian - I wouldn't know what they were talking about anyway.

However, I could tell that the atmosphere was negative. Raven looked she was either about to burst into tears or tear down the world - and knowing her, she was probably more likely to do the latter.

Clary POV

I shoved down the selfish feeling in my gut as Raven redialed. I'd known that she'd had a girlfriend; I didn't know why it bothered me.

Guilt and sympathy soon joined the selfish feeling. If it wasn't for me, Raven could have gone back to Russia after we decimated the Circle. She could have rejoined Katya, and they could have been happy together - well, as happy as one can be when they're a faction leader of the Russian Mafia. Raven had people there that were like her family - people that loved her, people that she loved. I tore that away from her.

I couldn't bare to see her like this - hopeful, but on the verge of tears. I knew it wasn't Katya's fault, but I had half a mind to hunt Katya down and bash her skull in for the pain she had caused Raven.

My train of thought was interrupted as Raven began speaking again.

" **When I managed to beat you in training for the first time, you invited me out for dinner. And… and as we overlooked the river, you told me that you loved me for the first time,** " Raven said desperately. I held my breath; I may already loathe Katya (despite never having met her) but if she agreed to help us… if we had the strength of the Russian Mafia on our side, we'd have a chance against Sebastian.

Raven POV

" **I thought… Raven - you - I thought you were dead,** " Katya whispered, her voice breaking. I swallowed thickly, guilt coating my tongue as I tried to speak.

" **Well… surprise?** " I said nervously, not really knowing what to say.

" **You little shit,** " Katya chuckled, but I could tell she was trying hard not to cry. " **I assume you have a good reason for not calling me earlier. What changed?** " She asked, in the same tone of false amusement.

" **We need your help.** "

There was a pause, before Katya replied in a strange tone, " **We?** "

I hesitated, not knowing how to respond to that. " **I - um - I'll explain later - in person?** " I held my breath.

Katya was silent for a few moments before replying with, " **Where are you?** "

I released a breath, relieved. " **The city's called Alicante - it's near -** " The phone clicked and she hung up. I leaned back against the bookshelf, blinking tears out of my eyes before turning to face Clary, and answering the question in her eyes. "She's on her way. Whether or not she'll help… that remains to be seen."

 **So the next chapter - which will be full length, I promise - should be up around the first of April. Thank everyone so much for reading this, and please please please leave a review! It means a lot!**


	11. Katya Rimskivokk

**... so... sorry about that. Please follow, favorite, and review! It really helps me out, especially if you see something I did wrong or you need something explained.**

Dmitri Vientrov was a smart man. He knew that he would never be able to beat Katya Rimskivokk in a duel, and he was aware that the only other way for him to become the leader of the underground Russian world was for Katya to die. Publically.

Dmitri was not so deluded as to believe that he would get away with killing his own leader; in Russia, the mafia was a family. He would be disgraced, exiled, or murdered. No, he would leave that plan for the fools such as Boris Abdulov, who made no secret of his ambitions to lead.

He would bide his time. He would wait for the perfect moment - for the perfect scapegoat - and then he would make his move.

Dmitri Vientrov was a smart man. He did not make mistakes.

Raven POV

I bit my lip as I sat behind Jace's desk, listening to Mrs. Walker drone on and on about corruption in the US government. If the circumstances were different, I might have laughed at the irony, considering I myself worked for the government. However, I was far too busy worrying about my reunion with Katya.

What if Katya hated me for leaving? What if Katya and Clary loathed each other? What if Clary decided she was too big of a threat, and tried to take her out? I had faith in Clary's abilities, but Katya had only ever been defeated in combat once in her entire life.

I's biggest worry, the one I was trying not to think about, one that made me feel sick… what if Katya had moved on? I had been away for over two years, plenty of time for Katya to grieve, move on, and find someone else.

"Miss Blackthorn?" Came Mrs. Walker's voice, pulling me from my reverie. The class was looking at me expectantly, and I realized I must have been asked a question. I glanced at the writing on the board.

"The twenty-fifth amendment," I guessed. Mrs. Walker's eyes narrowed, but I turned away and resumed the lecture. Not ten minutes later the bell rang, signifying the end of the period. I stood, collected my books, and followed Jace and Clary from the classroom. Because Art was next, we had to stop by our lockers to collect our sketchbooks.

Clary POV

I dug inside my locker for my sketchbook, trying to ignore the needless chatter of hundreds of high school students while simultaneously listening for any threats to us. Just as I was closing my locker door, Jace leant against the one beside mine, a shit-eating grin on his face.

"So, Red," he smirked, "Seeing as there's nothing going on after school today, I was thinking you, me, hot tub, no clothes…" he trailed off and looked at me expectantly.

"I can't believe your nerve!" I hissed at him, furious. My blood was boiling. "Considering the situation we're in, and you want to have hot tub sex?!" I was beyond enraged."Fuck you, Jace! You assume that just because you have more looks than brains that it'll get you into my pants? Screw that! You think that girls are waiting in line to have sex with you? Guess what - you've already had sex with them all, because you're so easy! You think that the girl you had sex with in a mop closet last period - don't think I didn't notice - is a bigger slut than you? Think again! You're a manwhore, who pretends he's desirable, and thinks he's better than everyone. You have too, because otherwise everyone will realise HOW FUCKING PATHETIC YOU REALLY ARE!" I yelled, seeing red. I was so done with his bullshit, I didn't even notice the entire hallway staring at us. I sneered at Jace's shell-shocked face, before turning on my heel and heading toward Art.

Raven POV

I glared at Jace's slack expression until he got the hint and hurried off to Art class. I was proud of Clary for saying that to him, but also furious with him for making her that angry. I was tempted to drive my knife up between his ribs, but I knew it would just piss off Clary even farther. Besides, if the thing with Katya backfired - I really, _really_ hoped it wouldn't - then the CIA were are next best bet.

I slumped down into a seat, ignoring Clarke's usually interesting droll. I was out of it; I couldn't stop thinking about seeing Katya again. The rest of the day dragged on slowly, almost as if Fate were laughing at me. After what felt like years, the bell rang, and and as one the students rushed from German class. I was already in a bad mood, and the fact that I had to wait two hours in the bleachers because Jace had football

I drove behind Jace and Clary on the way home; tomorrow, we would switch, and Jace would come on the back of my motorcycle while Clary trailed behind us in Jace's car (she was still kind of pissed about the Impala). I was dreaded letting Jace touch Sexy.

I followed Jace and Clary up the stairs of the Herondale mansion, and my phone beeped. I glanced down, and nearly dropped it in shock. There was a text from an unknown number. This phone was CIA protected - I'd written the firewall myself! Only the CIA and Clary could reach me, it was impossible for anyone - I nearly smacked myself from stupidity. There were exactly two people in the entire world that could hack my firewalls. One of them used to work for MI6, but now he was permanently paralyzed from a bomb that went off too early. The other one - Kseniya Adamovich - was a high-ranking member of the Russian Mafia. I opened the text and read the tiny black words blankly, trying not to sink into the feelings of three years ago.

 **яркая звезда**

 **Glass Blvd. Warehouse #23 3am**

 **Яростное пламя**

I swallowed at who it was addressed to. **яркая звезда** was Katya's nickname for me. I breathed heavily out of my nose before heading into our bedroom. Clary glanced up in curiosity at me, her forehead creased in confusion.

"Magnus has something for us?" She asked. I shook my head and handed her the phone. Her eyes widened.

"That's impossible," she said quietly, "No one can contact this number." I nodded mutely in agreement. "But - they - if that's how good they are, we need them," she whispered. I nodded again. She looked back at the phone before asking, a strange tone to her voice, "Bright Star?" I didn't reply. I didn't want to tell her that; those names were a bond between Katya and I, the only thing I would ever keep from Clary. She seemed to understand my reluctance because she didn't push it, and just handed the phone back to me and sighed heavily. "Am I coming with you?" She asked.

That's what I loved about Clary. She didn't force herself upon you, but she always offered my head. I raised an eyebrow at her. "What about Jace?"

She rolled her eyes. "Ugh, he's such an inconvenience. I'll see what Will's doing; he and Jem owe us big time after Shanghai. Those two can cover for us for a few hours, right?" I shrugged and nodded, gesturing for her to call Will.

He picked up after the second ring. "Hey Will, it's Clary. I was wondering… well you know that mess in Shanghai, and how we totally saved your asses?" There was a muffled yet plausibly indignant sound, and Clary chuckled. "Yeah, well, it we need a favor. You know how were stuck babysitting this kid?" There was a pause, and Clary rolled her eyes. "Shut up. Anyway, we have an… issue that we're taking care of, so can you cover for us tonight? Just make sure he doesn't get killed?" We waited with bated breath, before Clary punched the air slightly and flashed a triumphant grin. "Thanks Will - this totally makes up for Shanghai." She hung up and turned to me. "He and Jem will be here in a couple hours. They're just gonna stay in here tonight, make sure Jace doesn't pop his clogs, and they'll stay until we're back."

I smiled at her gratefully. She collapsed on the bed and I decided to address the far more mild problem. "So… I think you scared Jace pretty bad. How was the ride back together?"

Her face reddened slightly, and she scowled. "It was completely silent. It was kind of a relief, to be honest - it meant I didn't have to deal with him and his naturally obnoxious behavior."

Five hours later, there was a knock on our window. My hand dropped to the hilt of the knife hidden in the back of my waistband, and I glanced out of the glass before opening the window. Will and Jem sat on the roof just beneath the window sill, and they climbed in. I checked the clock on the nightstand; we still had two hours.

"Thanks for doing this, guys," Clary said, knowing I was too tightly wound about meeting Katya against to have any manners. Jem nodded and accepted the thank you, but Will just narrowed his eyes at us.

"Do we get to know what's so urgent that you have to abandon your post?" He asked bluntly. Clary shook her head, amused. Will snorted. "Of course not," he muttered under his breath. "Why tell Will anything? We didn't tell him the plan in Chechnya. We didn't tell him the emergency protocol in Beijing. An escape route, in case the job in Shanghai goes wrong? Nah, Will doesn't need to know that!"

Jem rolled his eyes and clapped a hand over Will's mouth, who glared at him. "We'll take care of everything," he told us smoothly. We all ignored Will's muffled attempts at speech, and Clary thanked them once more, before we headed out of the window. We shimmied down the drain pipe and hurried quickly but stealthily away from the grounds. We couldn't take Sexy - somebody would notice - so we high-tailed it one foot. Glass Boulevard was only a few miles away, and we had plenty of time to run there, scope it out, and enter without being late.

We ran side-by-side in comfortable silence. It had been a while since we'd been able to do this - no responsibilities, no one else here - just us, enjoying each other's company. I savored it; considering how fucked up our lives were about to get, especially if Sebastian was close, meant that we might not be getting very many opportunities to do this very often.

Half an hour later, we arrived in front of a row of looming warehouses. I breathed in deeply, preparing to see Katya again after years of her thinking I was dead. I nearly laughed out of hysteria; she was going to be so pissed at me. I glanced at Clary and nodded; we did a quick but thorough recon of the entire boulevard before finding Warehouse #23. I took a deep breath before kicking in the padlocked door of the warehouse.

Inside was one giant empty room, nothing but four giant floodlights in each corner of the building. Three of them were on; the fourth's glass was shattered all over the floor. I scanned the room, and we were alone. Clary checked her watch.

"Twelve minutes," she said quietly. I nodded, biting my lip with anticipation. A sudden thought formed in my mind, and I swung around to face Clary.

"Whatever happens," I said firmly, "You stay out of it, and you don't interfere." She furrowed her brows in confusion and opened her mouth to reply when the floodlights flickered, and a shape dropped down from the rafters. The figure rolled into a standing position and pulled down a black hood. Before us stood a gorgeous woman with long brown hair and high cheekbones. My breath caught; it was Katya.

"Katya," I whispered, my eyes shining. Her face was bored, but I could see so many emotions in her eyes. I made to say more when she rushed at me, shoving me against the warehouse wall. I could Clary move in peripheral vision, and I glanced at her, shaking my head silently. She nodded and backed up slightly, looking worried.

"Two and a half years," Katya hissed. "For two and a half years, I thought you were dead! I grieved for you!"

A single tear trailed down my cheek. "I know. I know, and I'm sorry," I whispered honestly.

Her eyes were filled with rage and sorrow as she spat, "That's not good enough." Her grip on my collar tightened, and my training kicked in. I lashed out with my elbow, catching her throat and she dropped me instinctively. She roared with rage and launched herself at me, knocking me to the ground. "Two and a half years," she growled. I rolled out from underneath her sprang to my feet, her following suit.

She threw a lightning-quick punch to my ribs, but I leaned back far enough so that it barely grazed me. I grabbed her arm and spun her around, forcing her against the wall with her back to me. She kicked backwards into my kneecaps and I staggered away, unbalanced. She leapt up and grabbed a low-hanging metal beam, her feet flying towards my face. I ducked and she dropped down on top of me, and I collapsed beneath her. I struggled, but her grip was like iron, and I didn't want to risk actually hurting her. That was when I noticed the fresh tears pouring down her face.

"You left me," she whispered, her voice cracking, "You promised you'd stay, and then you left." My heart broke for her as I smiled weakly.

"I know, and I'm sorry. But we're here now; together. We're together," I whispered reassuringly. She wiped her tears off on her shoulder and nodded, her cheeks still damp.

"Together," she echoed, before leaning down and kissing me. The familiar fire roared inside my chest as I returned the kiss passionately.

It wasn't until minutes later that I realized Clary had slammed the door behind her when she'd left angrily.

 **Please please please review! It means a lot!**


	12. You're in a Relationship? Cool, Me Too

**Hey guys! So it's kind of a short chapter, but it's updated earlier than usual, so here you go. There have been some complaints about how there's no Clace - I KNOW. I HAVE A PLAN. But thank you to everyone who left a review, it really means a lot. I probably won't update for a while - finals are in the next couple weeks - but I'll try! (Also, I'm thinking about introducing Magnus to Alec... thoughts?)**

Clary POV

I shimmied back up the pipe, blood roaring in my ears. The way they fought… they knew each other's techniques like the back of their hands. They knew exactly what the other was going to do, what move they were going to make - I swallowed heavily, and I realized why that bothered me so much. When Raven and I fought, even just sparring… that's exactly what we were like. I hated myself for it, but… it hurt, knowing that she had that connection with someone else, because Raven… she was the only person I'd ever been able to have that with.

I opened the window slowly and rolled my eyes, trying to pull back some of my confidence. I cleared my throat, an eyebrow raised.

Jem pulled hastily away from Will, his cheeks flushed and lips swollen. Will grinned lazily at me, while Jem scratched the back of his head as if embarrassed. I chuckled lowly.

"Would you two mind keeping that for when you're _not_ in the room that Raven and I are sleeping in?" I asked dryly, jumping down from the window sill and leaning against the edge of the desk. Jem mumbled something unintelligible, but Will just smirked.

"We thought you'd be gone for another hour at least," he said, as if that was a perfectly reasonable excuse. His eyes flicked up toward the open window. "Where's Raven?"

I shoved down the feelings that were roiling inside of me, and examined my nails nonchalantly.

"Busy," I said shortly. Jem raised his eyebrows in slight disbelief, and Will snorted.

"Yeah, okay, whatever. We're gonna leave now," he said, turning back to Jem and raking his gaze up the other man, "There's something we need to do."

"Ew, gross," I wrinkled my nose, and Will laughed at Jem's flustered blush. Jem pulled Will towards the window, and with one last salute from the latter, they were gone.

I collapsed onto my bed, letting the mask drop and the tears fall.

Raven POV

I pulled my shirt back over my head, cheeks flushed slightly. I could feel Katya's gaze on me as she leant against the wall, a smug smile on her lips. I wiggled into my black pants and she chuckled lowly.

"God I've missed that," I sighed out honestly. Katya's smirk grew. Already dressed, she strided over to where our weapons lay in a jumble on the floor and slid a butterfly knife into her boot. She grasped a black handgun and slipped it into the back of her waistband, simultaneously strapping a small gun that was standard-issue into her leg holster. She continued to rearm herself with various sharp blades. I quickly followed suit, buckling on my belt of knives and sliding the other weapons into place.

As I laced up my boots, I felt Katya's arms wrap around my waist. She pressed her face into the crook of my neck, humming an old Russian lullaby. I smiled slightly, and closed my eyes, relishing the embrace after so long apart.

I turned around, kissing her lips lightly. She ran a finger down my cheek, her eyes so much brighter than when I'd seen her earlier that night. "At some point," Katya stated, her familiar accent making the words sound rich and comforting, "We're going to have a long, long talk about what happened in the last two and a half years."

I nodded. I knew that we would have to talk about it eventually… but for now, I just wanted to embrace the moment. I kissed her again, before drawing back and saying, "We should probably go back - Clary will be wondering where we are."

I could have sworn her expression turned cold, but it was back to a smile so fast I must have imagined it. "Yes," she said cautiously, "And - who exactly is Clary? Your girlfriend?"

I felt a strange twinge in the pit of my stomach, but laughed it off. "No," I snorted, "She's more like a… very best friend, sister-by-oath, platonic soulmate - that sort of thing." Katya nodded slowly and took my hand, pulling us toward the door of the warehouse.

As we made our way onto the empty street, Katya asked quietly, "So what happened?" I looked at her quizzically, and she elaborated. "You haven't contacted me in such a long time… something must have changed. It could be that it's safe now - but I don't think so. I think someone is after you, and you need help. So who is it?"

My throat seemed stuck. I had missed her so much - missed the way we could sense what the other was feeling, the way she could tell something was wrong.

"Well - do you remember the Circle?" I asked, preparing myself for a long explanation. Katya nodded, and her forehead creased slightly.

"Yeah, the mob in Japan led by that arrogant British asshole? Everyone says it was wiped out a couple years ago, it went totally off the grid." At my dry chuckle, Katya's eyes widened slightly. "You didn't… that was you? How?"

"A story for another time. However, the Circle… well, obviously you know that Valentine Morgenstern is dead. His son, however, is very much alive. And very, very determined to kill me and get Clary back."

Katya grew furiously calm at the mention of killing me, before she scrutinized my face as we walked. "Why would he want Clary? What's she got to do with anything?" She paused, awaited my answer.

"She's his sister," I replied shortly. Her face grew cold, and she stopped walking.

"I'm sorry?" She asked incredulously. "She's his sister - she's _Valentine Morgenstern's daughter_ \- and you're trusting her? Valentine Morgenstern's daughter is your ' _platonic soulmate_ '?" Her eyes were icy. "Need I remind you that the Circle killed your parents? Killed Lilith? Killed Nyeta? And you're just fucking happy to be skipping along side-by-side with Clarissa Morgenstern without a care in the world? Are you insane?" She spat.

I held her gaze, ignoring the burning in the back of my eyes at the mention of Lilith, Nyeta and my parents. "She's not like them," I said desperately, "She helped me destroy most of the circle! She helped me kill Valentine! She saved my life!"  
Katya's vicious expression softened, but her tone was firm as she said, "I still don't trust her."

I took her hands in mine and stared into her eyes. "Do you trust me?"

Clary POV

Two hours later, I heard a light tap on the window. I spun around, the tears on my face having long since dried and been washed off. I pulled the window open, and Raven landed lightly on the floor. There was nobody with her. I raised an eyebrow.

"Where's Katya?" I asked. She slipped off her jacket and pulled a soft grey hoodie on before answering.

"She's regrouping in a safehouse a few miles away. She's going to do it - help us."

I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. It wasn't futile - we had a chance now! We might be able to finally live without fear of Sebastien breathing down our necks.

A small, spiteful part of me wanted Katya to say no, and leave us alone. For her to never come back. I hated myself for it.

I nodded, and a smile tugged at my lips. "Your shift. I've been watching these cameras for the last couple hours, and I want sleep, dammit!"

Raven laughed. "Sure, Clare. Go to bed." I shot her a grateful look and crawled into bed, falling asleep almost immediately.

I blinked my eyelids open blearily as Raven shook me gently. "Time to get up," she said kindly, "Time for another day protecting His Oh So Pretentious Holiness."

Not an hour later, Raven and Jace were in the latter's car, and I was tailing them on Raven's motorcycle. We parked in front of the school, and I swung my leg off of the bike, tying my hair back up in a bun. Don't get me wrong, I didn't mind riding a motorbike, but it did get quite irritating when it blew my hair out of it's ponytail.

We met up with Jace's usual squad (Jordan, Alec, Maia, and Isabelle) in front of the school doors. Just as the bell rang, Jace caught me by the wrist.

"Yes?" I asked him, frowning.

"Can I talk to you? Alone?" He asked, looking nervous. I raised an eyebrow at this new side of Jace. I'd never seen him without his cocky, arrogant demeanor, and I had to say… I didn't hate this side of him.

I glanced at Raven and gestured for her to head inside to keep our cover; I'd keep Jace out of trouble. She stared at him, calculating, before nodding and following Alec inside.

"What do you want?" I asked Jace as he dragged me into a little excluded alcove. He ran his hand through his hair, and there was a small blush on his cheeks. If I was going to paint that moment, I would have called in _The Humble Angel._

"So, Clary, I was thinking about what you said yesterday," he said quietly, refusing to meet my gaze and staring at the floor.

I rolled my eyes. "Look, Jace, I -"  
"Let me finish," he said, cutting me off and raising his eyes to meet mine. "I thought about it all last night, and… I realized that you were right."

I opened my mouth to retort when I processed what he had said. "I'm sorry?" I asked incredulously.

He cleared his throat and continued, rushing now as if he was scared he might never get all of the words out. "I realized you were right, and that I was being pathetic, just trying to screw you. That I was being a coward, because I didn't want to face the fact that I don't just want to have you in my bed - didn't want to face the fact that I actual like you. That I like the way you laugh, and your sarcastic comments when I do something particularly stupid or arrogant, and your glare when someone insults Raven, and…" He trailed off, a blush creeping up his neck. I closed my mouth, unable to find words.

"What I'm trying to say," he added desperately, "Is that I apologize. For how I've been acting. And, if you'll let me start over…" He closed his eyes and drew in a breath, before opening them again and his sky blue eyes held my gaze. "Clary," he asked, "Would you like to go out on a date with me?"

I blinked, shocked. He'd gone from a cocky, arrogant pain in my ass to a nervous but kind possible date. All of the reasons why I could say no - why I _should_ say no - ran through my mind. I would probably never see him again after this job, it might make him a target for Sebastian, it would never be fair because I would always choose Raven over him if it came to that… but then I remembered that Katya was back, and Raven had someone. That Raven would always choose Katya first; and it was with no little amount of spite that I made my decision.

"Okay," I said to Jace, "I'd love to go on a date with you." I hoped I wouldn't regret my decision.

His eyes widened, as if he had never actually expected me to say yes. "Really?" He asked, the joyous surprise evident in his tone. "I mean - awesome! I was thinking tomorrow night, just us, that new Harrison Ford movie?"

I let out a low chuckle. "Sounds good."

 **Sorry it was so short, but I wanted to get something on here. Please please please review! It really helps! If you have a small request for this story (like side characters you want to end up together, or if you want a flashback explaining something) don't hesitate to review or pm me.**


	13. Well, Shit

**So... it's been a while. Sorry. I was kind of focused on my Harry Potter fanfic that I just started, sorry!** **All flashbacks will be written in third person POV (for both plot purposes and so that it's easier to tell whether what you're reading is present or past). Thank you to everyone who reviewed, you've been a huge help! (And to thenumbertwentyseven - yes, there will be more flashbacks now. Thanks for that!)**

Moscow, Russia, January 2014  
Raven POV

Raven leant against the wall, her eyes scrutinizing the man before her intently. Her young face held no expression, but the man standing a few feet from her was fidgeting with the spectacles that hung from a chain around his neck.

Finally, five minutes later, she spoke. "What is it?" She asked coolly, her voice betraying no feeling. The man cleared his throat and put on his spectacles.

"You've been summoned by -" He started to say, his voice shaking slightly, but Raven cut him off.

"Ah, no." She took a step toward him, flicking her wrist. A long, wicked-looking knife slipped from her sleeve into her hand, and she could see his Adam's Apple bobbing as he swallowed. "I do not _get summoned._ Try again."

The man nodded jerkily. "Um - there's been a… request, for your presence," he glanced up at her, and she nodded approvingly, "By the Faction Leader of Nizhniy Novgorod."

Raven cocked her head, her mind whirling. She owed the Russian Mafia, and spurning a request by one of their Faction Leaders would be a grave error; she couldn't afford to make any more enemies. Plus, she might be getting paid for a job; she wasn't doing much else right now. She nodded, and the man heaved a quiet sigh of relief. He turned around and practically ran out of the door.

A tiny smirk danced upon Raven's lips once he left; it was good to know that the name "The Black Dagger" still aroused that level of fear, even in Russian Mafia messengers. With a small sigh, she gathered her things and prepared for a meeting with one of the highest names in the Mafia.

Raven stalked down the hallway, her patience already wearing thin. As one of the most feared assassins on the globe, she wasn't used to being told to wait. She'd nearly slit the attendant's throat out of spite. After half an hour of waiting, she'd finally been told she was allowed to see the Faction Leader. 'Allowed to see'! Nobody _allowed_ the Black Dagger to do anything, not even Mafia higher-ups.

Her face was stormy as she arrived at the end of the hallway and practically threw the door open. She opened her mouth to make a snide remark about having to wait, before her jaw dropped.

" _Rimskivokk?"_ She said incredulously.

The girl across from her looked only about a year older than Raven herself, and she had dark brown hair pulled on top of her head in a neat bun. A sarcastic grin painted her face, and she leant forward across her desk.

"Ah, if it isn't our little assassin," the other girl said mockingly. "I've told you, Morsmundi, you can call me Katya." She winked at Raven, whose hands formed tight fists. She couldn't keep her cheeks from reddening slightly, and she hated herself for it. Raven closed her eyes and took a calming breath, before meeting Katya's condescending gaze.

 _Fine_ , she thought angrily, _two can play at that game._ Raven took a seat in the leather chair across from Katya's desk.

"Whoever made you faction leader needs a serious psych evaluation," she said, putting a mask of uninterest over her features. Katya raised a delicate eyebrow and let out a quiet chuckle.

"Be careful what you say about my father; the Head of the Russian Mafia is not a wise person to insult," she purred quietly. "Besides, going undefeated in combat does give you an edge when being promoted."

This time it was Raven who chuckled. "Undefeated? I'm sorry, are you forgetting our little sparring match last year?"

The smirk slid right off of Katya's face. "You cheated," she spat. Raven snorted.

"I won. I didn't realize you were such a sore loser, _Katya,"_ she mocked with an infuriating wink. Katya glared at her, irritation dancing in her eyes.

"Let me remind you, Morsmundi, that the _only_ reason you are still alive is because of us. Remember that, next time you decide to try and insult one of us."

Raven crossed her arms, her expression unreadable. "So what am I here for?" She asked, emotion gone from her tone. Katya cleared her throat and straightened herself.

"I have need of your services; Anton Vorshevsky is becoming an annoyance. Get rid of him - you will be appropriately compensated for your troubles."

Raven nodded slowly. "I'll be back in forty-eight hours. Don't keep me waiting this time."

Alicante, Virginia, December 2017

Raven POV

I left Clary to deal with Jace and headed inside. As I sat down in English, my phone vibrated. I glanced at it - it was Katya.

 _Remember Shenyang?_

That was all it said. I furrowed my eyebrows, confused. Shenyang… that was where I'd been undercover with the Triad, back when I was still getting to know Katya. My cover was stretching thin, and she'd turned up without warning pretending to be a Triad leader.

I nearly dropped my phone as I realized the implications of the text, just as the classroom door swung open and Katya walked in. She winked at me, before approaching Mrs. Skeeter. Thoughts whirled through my head as she had a small whispered conversation with Skeeter, before taking a seat beside me.

"What the Hell, Katya?" I whispered furiously. She just grinned and leant towards me.

"I'm your girlfriend from before your adoptive parents died, and I missed you so much I convinced my parents to move here so I could see you again." I glared at her, but her cover made sense; it also meant that we didn't have to hide our relationship from everyone, which was kind of a relief. She leant over and kissed my cheek just as the bell rang.

I quickly cleared my throat and glanced around the classroom - Clary and Jace rushed in seconds later. I let out a quiet breath of relief as Clary's gaze found Katya; her eyes widened, and she turned her head to glare at me.

 _What is she doing here?_ I could see the message in her eyes. I shrugged minimally, and Clary followed Jace to sit behind Katya and I.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, if you could settle down," drawled the teacher as she stood from behind her desk, "Today we have another new student, Katie Dunn. Katie, could you tell us something about yourself please?"

Katya snorted under her breath but stood up nonetheless. "Hi! I'm Katie! I won the state championship for archery in Wyoming, and I'm nineteen. I'm still in highschool because I got really sick in ninth grade and missed so much school they made me do it over again! And - and I believe in the idea of true love."

My cheeks burned as her gaze turned to me with that last sentence, and I heard a couple wolf-whistles from the back of the class. I swallowed. The part about her redoing ninth grade - that would explain why she looked a little older than most of the students here… she was actually twenty, but she could pass for nineteen just fine. The archery thing was bullshit - she could win the _national_ championship for archery if she wanted too.

"Thank you, Katie," Mrs. Skeeter said, her face completely unimpressed. She gestured for Katya to sit down, and started a long and incredibly boring lecture on the influences of Ancient Greek tragedies in Shakespeare's work. Almost nobody was actually listening to her; three girls in the corner were giggling over a magazine I couldn't see, and two guys sitting in front of me were playing hangman.

Clary leant forward in her seat and whispered something in my ear; however, I couldn't hear, because my attention was elsewhere. As she spoke Katya grabbed my hand under the table and rested her head on my shoulder. I could feel heat creeping up my neck, but I ignored it, and squeezed Katya's hand lightly. We were supposed to be former girlfriends, right? I had to keep our cover.

Clary's POV

"We need to talk," I whispered to Raven. She didn't reply, and when I glanced towards Katya, I saw why. A sick, angry feeling - not quite jealousy - pooled in the pit of my stomach, and I crossed my arms, pushing any emotion off of my face. The minutes ticked by, and Mrs. Skeeter's voice droned on and on as I glared at the two in front of me. When the bell rang, Jace splayed his hands flat across my desk.

"So Re - Clary, Alec, Isabelle and I are skipping Chemistry to meet up with Jordan and Maia in one of the empty classrooms next period. You're coming, right?" He asked, a hopeful yet somehow still arrogant grin on his face. I rolled my eyes but nodded; we had to stay with him. "Awesome," he replied, his grin widening, and practically skipped from the room.

Ten minutes later, we were all trudging up the stairs to the empty classroom. Katya had tagged along, which I wasn't happy about to say the least, but she refused to leave Raven. I wasn't too pleased with that either, although I was angry at myself for being annoyed with her.

We approached the second floor of the school when Raven tapped me on the shoulder.

"Hey - are you okay?" She asked me quietly. I opened my mouth to reply when I heard a faint whistling sound. I instinctively dropped to the ground before placing the sound; a shuriken.

I spun around and cursed under my breath, before yelling, "Hit the floor! Raven, cover Jace!" At the end of the hallway stood three men in dark suits, and one of them I recognized; he was a man from my nightmares.

I drew my handgun as I heard Isabelle scream, and Raven ushering everyone back down the stairs. I ducked underneath another shuriken before shooting two of the men in quick succession. I hit them both right between the eyes, and they dropped like flies. I aimed to shoot at the third man - the monster I knew - but his third shuriken hit my gun, and it was forced from my hand.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't my favorite little ginger," drawled Pangborn, a cruel smirk in his face. Before he finished his sentence, I rushed at him, jumping aside a fourth shuriken and sliding under a fifth. His grin slipped and I rushed to my feet, punching him hard in the groin. I didn't wait for him to recover, but grabbed his head and jumped, flipping over him. I felt his neck start to give, but he was too smart for that. He jumped back with me, crushing me under his bodyweight.

"I have missed your screams, Ginger," he purred softly. "But your brother's screams… oh, Jonathan was just delectable." My blood boiled, and I brought my knee up sharply into his abdomen, he grunted, and with him losing focus, I was able to throw him off. I glanced around the hallway, looking for anything that could give me an edge, when my gaze landed on a support pole a few feet from Pangborn.

I sprinted towards it. His smile widened, thinking I was running for him - but I ducked beneath his clumsy swipe and grasped the pole with both hands. I swung my body around it using the momentum from my sprint, and lifted my legs up to wrap around his throat. He let out a strangled yell, but I just squeezed my legs even tighter. His hands reached up to try and pull me off, and I twisted my legs sharply. I heard a sharp crack, and his body collapsed, me with him.

I drew in a deep breath and pulled myself to a stand, before making my way back to the staircase. I staggered along, still slightly out of breath from when Pangborn had crushed me. As I arrived at the top of the stairs, I raised my eyebrows.

Six bodies lay at bottom of the stairs, most of them in pools of blood. Raven was leaning against the wall, two crimson-covered knives held in her hands. Katya stood at the head of one corpse, her knuckles purple. Isabelle and Alec were standing at the top of the stairs, their faces completely white, while Jace was desperately trying to wipe the blood from his shirt, a wild look in his eyes.

"Well, shit," I said, closing my eyes tightly.

 **So, yeah. Please please follow, favorite, and review! If you have questions/pro tips** ** _( t),_** **don't hesitate to review, and I'll answer them in the intro to the next chapter. Love you guys!**


	14. What do you want? (Author's Note)

**PLEASE READ**

 **So this isn't a chapter - I apologize to those of you who got excited.**

 **However.**

 **I'm debating what to publish for my next chapter, so I decided to ask you guys. You have two choices.**

 **A) I publish a normal chapter about what comes next, will take a while (I swear I'm like the Dan Howell of fanfic updates)**

 **B) I publish a chapter about Raven's past life, which will be ready by Thursday**

 **Your choice! Please review and tell me which one you would like! I'll be deciding by majority vote.**


	15. The Value of a Life

**Don't judge, I wrote most of this listening to the Hamilton soundtrack. Also, remember when I said flashbacks would be in third person? Apologies if you don't like that, but too bad. Also, it was a little faster than I expected, so you're welcome. Have fun with this! Please review! F** **or that one reviewer who wished Jace was a bit more of a fighter... in this AU, he grew up in a perfect, spoiled home. I think anyone who grew up like that wouldn't be very fighting inclined... however, I hope this satisfies your needs.**

Jace POV

There was so much blood.

For everything they tell you in books, movies, video games - it doesn't prepare you for the real thing. You can watch bright red liquid spurt from cartoon characters all day, but it was nothing like this.

Nothing like looking at the body of a man, someone who used to have a life, and know that he was dead because of you. Knowing that you made a conscious decision that resulted in his life being stolen from him.

I had to get it off. It was just proof - proof of what I had done. He had tried to kill me, but when Katya was fighting his comrade and knocked his gun from his hands... he had bent down to pick it up, and when I'd seen a discarded switchblade on the floor… I had acted without thinking. And now the man's blood was all over my shirt. All over my hands.

All over my soul.

I glanced up at Raven and Katya, who had now been joined by Clary. They didn't even seem _fazed._ It didn't seem to bother any of them one bit that they had just slaughtered these men, who had lives, jobs, families…

I couldn't stand here with them after they had just murdered all these people; after I had done the same. I tore off my shirt; I couldn't bare to keep looking at the blood, like it was crimson guilt.

I ran down the staircase and sprinted through the latticework of school hallways, until I found myself in an empty classroom. I sat down in a chair and for the first time in four years, I let the tears fall.

Clary POV

A silence stretched across the staircase, broken only by heavy breaths and the sound of Jace wiping at his shirt. I opened my mouth to speak, but didn't get the chance to speak before Jace tore his shirt of and hightailed it down the stairs.

I glanced at Raven in confusion, and she shrugged. I felt a little tug in the depths of my stomach as I caught the expression on Jace's face, and I raced after him, leaving Raven to deal with our blown cover.

He wasn't difficult to find, for he left little smudges of blood on the floor. That was going to be a problem… I'd have to call Magnus. As our handler, he could get rid of suspicions and help us keep our cover. He was good at that.

I opened a classroom door with a quiet _click_ and was met with a sight I had to admit I never thought I'd see. Jace was sitting at a desk, his face in his hands, his body shaking slightly. There were several tears dripping from the cracks between his fingers, and my heart wrenched. It was stupid; I'd killed people, I'd been tortured before, and a teenage boy crying is what it took to evoke my emotions?

"Hey Jace," I said softly, taking a seat next to him. He flinched his head up at the sudden noise, but didn't reply. He merely put his head down on the desk and flipped me off.

I nearly laughed, despite the situation. It was just such a _Jace_ thing to do…

I started to tie my hair back in a bun and didn't prompt him further; if he wanted to talk, he would. I knew from experience with interrogating criminals that silence often got them to confess faster than arguments (I felt slightly guilty about using manipulation techniques on Jace, but how else was I supposed to help him?).

Three minutes later, he wiped his face on the back of his sleeve and turned to me. His eyes were red from crying, and I could see depth to his soul that I'd never expected from a spoiled schoolboy.

"I killed him," he said dully, not mincing his words. My eyes widened with shock; I had assumed Katya and Raven had taken care of everyone. I scooted closer to him and put my hand over his, sympathy - and empathy - rising as I remembered my first kill.

 _Tokyo, Japan, January 2010_

Clary shivered, but not from cold. She swallowed thickly, biting her lip and trying as hard as she could not to let herself cry. She reached out and squeezed Sebastian's hand tightly, nervous. He pulled out of her grip and moved to stand in front of her, before kneeling down. He smiled proudly at her.

"Clarissa, don't worry, you'll be fine. There's no way you can lose - this guy's an amatuer compared to you," he said, in what she assumed was meant to be a reassuring tone. "You'll win, and Dad'll let you come with me to the concert!"

Clary tried not to flinch backwards and instead nodded at him, not saying a word. She kept in her disgust; Sebastian thought she was worried about losing the match! She didn't have a shred of anxiety in her about that; the only person in the Circle she couldn't defeat in single combat were her father's top operatives (along with Sebastian and their father himself). No, she was sick to her stomach about something else entirely. Today, for the first time, she would have to end someone's life.

Clary's father had a tradition with his three children; on their twelfth birthday, they had to test their skills against one of his lowly henchmen. They had to kill whoever their father chose.

Sebastian and Jonathan had had their birthdays on the same day, but as Sebastian was four minutes older, he had gone first. He killed Nightingale, a traitor to the Circle, in less than two minutes, and he had been _proud._ He had acted as if it was a badge of honor, to have ended someone else's life.

Jonathan had been much less enthusiastic, to put it lightly. Jonathan spent the better part of twenty minutes getting beaten to a pulp before he had managed to garrote his opponent. Two years later and he was still having nightmares.

Today was Clary's turn.

Sure, she had been in fights before, but those had been mere sparring matches. This was different. This was murder.

Her breath hitched as she started down the steps into the courtyard, where four men stood. Two were her father's personal bodyguards, one was a nameless Circle member she had seen before, and the fourth was her father. Valentine Morgenstern was a tall, blond man with eyes sharper and colder than diamond. He took no pleasure in killing, but neither did he find it distasteful; it was merely a useful tool to him. He didn't get pleasure in forcing his children to become murderers, but it proved to him that they were strong enough to be in the 'family business'.

He turned around and caught sight of Clary, nodded with a cold smile. "Ah, Clarissa. Good. This is Ian Childwright. He's looking for a promotion. He'll receive one, if he can defeat you." Her father left the other man and stalked confidently over to Clary, leaning down to murmur in her ear, "See that he doesn't get it." She nodded, her eyes on the floor. She didn't dare meet his eyes.

Her father gestured with his hand, and his two bodyguards hurried up the steps to stand beside him. He raised his eyebrows meaningfully at Clary, who nodded submissively and headed into the center of the courtyard. They were each allowed one weapon, but no guns. Her father thought that would make things 'too easy'. Childwright held a small, wickedly crafted axe in his right hand. Clary's fists were closed over her brass knuckles, Sebastian's birthday gift to her three years ago.

Her father's clear voice rang over the courtyard as the two opponents sized eachother up. "Begin," he said coldly.

Childwright didn't hesitate before he lunged at Clary with the axe, and she sidestepped it easily. Childwright growled and swung at her side, and she merely ducked underneath it. That was how she spent the next few minutes; on defence. She didn't once try to attack him.

"Stop toying with me," the man spat angrily, but he could see the panic in his eyes. "If you don't try, he's going to give me to your brother."

Clary's breath caught; no one deserved to be given to Sebastian. If it was between her killing this man, and Sebastian torturing him to death over the span of days… she would be merciful.

"I'm sorry," she told him sorrowfully, before ducking under his next swing and grabbing the handle of his axe, spinning around to wrench if from his grip. His terrified eyes tore at her conscience, but she swallowed to strengthen her resolve. He aimed a clumsy punch at her face and she grasped his wrist, dropping down and flipping him over her until he landed on his back. He let out a small groan and she apologized quietly before slamming the blade of the axe down onto his neck.  
She stared at him as there was a short gurgling sound and crimson blood began to almost _bubble_ out of the deep gouge in his throat. She took a shaky step backwards, not daring to let the tears fall, and she clasped her fists so tightly she could feel the nails digging painfully into her palms.

This man would never again walk into town. He would never again smile at Clary from across the room, he would never sneak Jonathan a new book, he would never roll his eyes when he caught Clary reading a comic. He would never eat a steak, or drink a glass of water, or go to a concert, or stand in the rain, or watch a sunset. He would never again kiss his wife, or hug his children. Clary had taken all of that from him. She had stolen his life.

She barely registered her father's praise or Sebastian's congratulatory hair-ruffling. She stood there until they were finished, before she headed back inside and up the stairs to her bedroom, feeling numb.

It wasn't until later, when Jonathan came into her room with a sad smile and a safe hug, that she allowed herself to cry.

 _Alicante, Virginia, December 2017_

I closed my hand over his and squeezed lightly, waiting for him to continue.

"He was going to kill me. I just… the knife was right there, and he dropped his gun… I just… I slit his throat, Clary. There wasn't even a struggle; he didn't even get the chance to fight for himself. I just came up behind him, and…" his voice cracked, and my heart ached for him. His eyes were full of such self-loathing…

"He would have killed _you,_ " I said softly. "You did the right thing."

He snorted. "The right thing," he echoed dully. "Right." He dragged the back of his wrist across his eyes, wiping away a few stray tears. "Maybe he should have killed me. I mean, what makes my life more valuable than his?" Jace asked, his voice numb.

"No," I told him. He turned his gaze back to the floor, clearly not really paying much attention. "Jace, look at me," I said sharply, and used my free hand to turn his head until our eyes met. "Jace, he was a murderer. All of those men were. I have met all of them before, and _every single one of them_ have killed _children_. You ended that man's rampage."

He didn't look terribly convinced, and told him something I'd never told anyone, not even Raven; I told him the story of my first kill.

He didn't break my gaze the entire time I talked, but by the end, he looked a little better. "Besides," I added with a chuckle, "If you had died, Raven I wouldn't get paid."

Jace snorted. I could tell the laugh was mostly for my benefit, but at least he _could_ laugh. At least it hadn't shaken him up too much.

"What are you going to tell them? Alec and Izzy, that is," he added at my questioning look.

I rubbed my temples slightly. "Hell if I know," I admitted reluctantly. "We've only had our cover blown once before - actually, that's how we got stuck babysitting you," I said with a laugh. He stuck his tongue out at me, and I rolled my eyes. "We're bringing in our handler to sort out the mess, but I suppose we'll have to call head office and…"

I swore under my breath as I realized. "Fuck. Director Penhallow is never going to let us out of the office ever again," I groaned.

Raven POV

I watched Clary race down the stairs after Jace and turned around back to my current problem - Alec and Isabelle. There was a pause as we just stared at each other, broken by Katya's silent giggling. I glared over Alec's shoulder at her, and she managed to stifle her laughter. She didn't refrain from smirking, however.

Isabelle spoke first. "What the FUCK was that?!" She shrieked. "Who - what - we almost died! We were seconds from death!"

Alec seemed to be shaken out of his reverie by his sister's voice. "Iz, shut up for a second." Isabelle looked affronted, but did as he asked.

Alec looked like he was searching for the right words. "You're not really family friends with Jace, are you?" He asked.

"Urm… no," I said, uncomfortable. This was more Clary's area than mine. "I…" Katya snorted again from behind the two siblings. "Here, I'm gonna call someone. He'll explain it to you."

Both the Lightwoods started to argue, but I ignored them and pulled out a phone, dialing Magnus's number. He answered after two rings.

"What's up, Pancake?"

"Meet me at Idris High. Our cover's been blown."

"On it." There was a click, and the line went dead.

 **So... that was a thing. Um, yeah. Please, please, PLEASE review! Tell me what you liked, what you want to see more of, what you didn't like, what you want to see less of... it really helps! Please!**


	16. There's a New Chapter

**For some reason, there wasn't a notification sent out for the last chapter, so this'll be the notification.**


	17. It Wasn't CHEATING, Exactly

**So I know this chapter is super short, but you weren't going to get one at all for another couple weeks, so you're welcome. More importantly - BETA WANTED! (I feel like an idiot because I've been doing this for a long time, but I'm not 100% sure what a Beta does, but my friend has one who basically prods her until she updates, looks over her story for grammatical errors/inconsistencies, and helps with the future planning of the story... I need a person like that. Let me know if you're interested and have an idea as to how to do it. Please!)**

 _August 20th, 2002_

 _St. Petersburg, Russia_

Lilith gripped the handle of her pistol slightly tighter as she heard the sniffling growing louder. Her footsteps were silent, giving her an almost ethereal appearance. Her clothes, which were all pitch black, did nothing to dissuade that illusion.

She gritted her teeth slightly as the sniffling was joined by loud, dramatic sobs. Did this person _want_ to get shot? The first thing you learn when living in this area of the city was to not draw attention to yourself.

She turned the corner and caught sight of a small, shivering body hiding behind a large dumpster and narrowed her eyes. It was the body of a small child.

"H - hello?" A quiet, pathetic voice wandered out from behind the dumpster. The child stood and stumbled toward Lilith, who took a step back. Children had never really been her area of expertise.

The child was a little girl, of perhaps seven years old. Her long, black hair was matted with dirt and something that looked far too much like blood for Lilith's liking. Her brilliant, emerald green eyes were red-rimmed and puffy, and her cheeks were wet with tears.

"What are you doing here? Where are your parents?" Lilith asked coolly. The girl drew in a shuddering breath and, to Lilith's chagrin, she began to sob heavily.

"They're - they're gone," she cried, "Momma - he killed my momma. My momma told me to come here, to find a Lilid… my momma's gone…"

Lilith narrowed her yes. "She told you to find Lilith?" The girl nodded, her tears still coming. "What's your momma's name, child?" She asked. She had a hunch - the only person who would ever tell their child to come to this area of St. Petersburg, to find Lilith.

The girl's nose crinkled slightly. "Her name is Momma," she said, as if that were obvious. "But… but sometimes people would call her Larisa." Lilith's breath rushed from her body at the realization - Larisa Morsmundi was dead. "But - my name is Raven," the girl said, a wide smile breaking out over her face where misery had been written mere moments before.

Lilith made a reckless, split-second decision that she would never regret. She picked up the child - Raven - and set her on top of her hip. "I'm sorry about your momma," she said comfortingly (or as comforting as a woman who had seen the things Lilith had could be), "But I'm going to help you. I'm going to make sure that what happens to your momma never happens to anyone else… and that perhaps one day, you'll be able to avenge her."

There was no response from Raven, and Lilith glanced down to see the child dead asleep, a string of drool falling from her mouth. Lilith snorted quietly and rolled her eyes, before turning around and heading back the way she came.

Lilith's logical side knew that bringing up a child in the Russian Mafia would not go well; but Lilith had never really listened to her logical side. She owed Larisa Morgenstern a life debt, and it was time to repay it.

 _May 12th, 2012_

 _Moscow, Russia_

Fourteen-year-old Raven was annoyed. Not only was she being treated like a child, which was humiliating enough, but everyone just assumed that she would lose the fight! She glared across the mat at her current opponent, Katya Rimskivokk.

Katya was a year older than Raven and everyone raved about her skills. As the daughter of the leader of the Russian Mafia, Raven thought they should have expected no less - but no one was raving about _her_ skills, no. It was all 'Katya this' and 'Katya that', despite the fact that Raven was sure she could defeat the older child.

So that's why she was in this predicament. She had, against Lilith's advice, challenged Katya to a sparring match - and everyone who was anyone within the Mafia had turned up to watch.

"You are so adorable," Katya said with sickening sweetness, "But I'm afraid your cuteness isn't going to stop me from throwing you into the mat and leaving you with injuries that last for weeks."

Raven resisted the urge to jump on her and break her neck. The sparring match had simple rules - no permanent damage. You win once one person either concedes or is left unconscious.

Lilith blew the whistle and the match began.

"You should really have left the fighting to the grown-ups," Katya crooned condescendingly. Raven ignored her hypocritical comment in favor of throwing a right cross, which Katya easily ducked. She brought her knee up to jab in between Katya's legs, but the older girl simply sidestepped and brought her elbow to Raven's side.

Raven sucked in a breath and vowed not to pull anymore of her punches. She ducked beneath Katya's right cross and brought her fist up between the older girl's legs. Katya sucked in a breath and staggered backwards, fires of rage roaring in her eyes.

Katya feinted to the left and brought her right knee up into Raven's side. Raven grabbed her knee and twisted it to the side, flinging Katya across her body. She had hoped for Katya to faceplant in the mat, but instead her opponent hit the ground rolling and stood up with no difficulty.

"You're going to have to do better than that," Katya said with a grin, but Raven didn't wait for her to finish. Instead, she launched a series of lightning-fast jabs to Katya's ribcage. The other girl managed to block the first three attacks, but finally Raven managed to land a few shots to her torso.

Despite all of her complaining, Raven was in that moment very grateful for the anatomy lessons Lilith had forced her to take last year. She used her knowledge to drive her knuckles into the spaces between Katya's ribs, and send the girl reeling backwards, bent at the waist.

"If it's this easy, I won't need to," Raven shot back. Katya's face contorted with rage and she rushed at Raven. The younger girl only just managed to avoid being tackled but was too slow to avoid Katya's second swing. She stumbled backward, holding her hand over her stinging cheek. _That's going to leave a mark,_ she thought silently.

Raven made the mistake of not immediately expecting another attack, and the force of Katya's next kick knocked her onto the mat. Katya opened her mouth - probably to taunt her - but Raven simply swept her legs underneath Katya's with enough force to make her topple over. Raven scrambled over and crawled on top of her adversary, pinning her arms to the ground with her knees. She sat on Katya's stomach and grinned at her.

"This was just too easy," she purred, before smashing her fist into Katya's face. Pulling back her bruised knuckles, she made to repeat her action when Katya's knee collided powerfully with Raven's side. She gasped and clutched the throbbing area, and Katya managed to shove her off. Raven rolled to a stand and swung her foot at Katya's head, not waiting for the other girl to rejoin her in an upright stance.

Her foot connected forcefully to Katya's face, and the older girl's attempt to bring herself to a stand was thwarted. Blood began gushing from her now-uneven nose and the fury in her eyes was unmistakable.

Raven dodged a lunge by stepping backwards, but she hadn't counted on Katya's acrobatic experience; she hadn't thought about the fact that Katya had run away once, and spent two months with a travelling circus troupe.

Katya sprung up off the ground and flipped backwards. She soared over Raven's head and crashed into the younger girl, sending her sprawling. Now it was she who had face-planted in the mat.

She could hear Katya's derisive laughter behind her as she pushed herself to her knees. She caught sight of Lilith's face, and her guardian's eyes narrowed before looking pointedly at the corner of the room, where a new fighting platform was being constructed. Raven's gaze followed suit, before her eyes widened slightly. They weren't allowed to bring weapons to the fight, but one of the first lessons you learned in hand-to-hand combat - or any type of combat - was to make use of your surroundings.

Katya was apparently confident in her abilities enough to allow Raven to rise, sneering.

"Had enough yet?" She asked with a smirk as Raven stood. Raven didn't think Katya looked quite as confident as she thought she was; not with her nose off center and blood starting to dry on her face.

Katya made to swing, and instead of dodging, Raven turned tail and sprinted toward the long, metal poles that were in a pile in front of the in-progress platform. Katya had run after her, but once she realised what Raven was doing she backed up slightly.

"You're weapons," the older girl tried, her hands up in front of her.

Raven grinned. "I'm just using my surroundings," she said innocently. She grasped the pole in both hands and made to swing. Katya ducked - but it had been a feint. Raven wasn't swinging the pole at all. She ran and pressed it into the pliable floor, before swinging her body around it and latching her legs around Katya's neck.

She let go of the pole and the two girls tumbled into the mat, but Raven didn't loosen her legs one bit; in fact, she tightened them. Katya began to gasp for air, and grappled with Raven's legs. Finally, when it became clear that there was no way for her to get out of Raven's chokehold, she pounded the mat three times in quick succession - the signal of submission. A grin broke out over Raven's face as she released Katya from her near-fatal grip, and she rolled away from the other girl before standing up.

She was too high on triumph to really feel the pain that should be emanating severely from nearly everywhere on her body. Someone rushed onto the mat to help Katya up, but the older girl shoved them away and pushed herself to her feet. She glared at Raven, her expression furious. Katya staggered toward her, the loathing deep within her eyes obvious. She spat at Raven's feet.

"This isn't over," she snarled, before limping off of the mat. She didn't look back at Raven, or the rest of the silent room, once.

There was a long, uncomfortable pause, before the clapping started. A low, whispering murmur began in the crowd around the mat, and some of the 'audience' members began to trickle out of the room. Everyone looked heavily impressed, but Raven only sought the praise of one person. Her gaze swept the crowd before landing once more on Lilith.

The look of approval in her guardian's eyes made Raven grin.

 **Hope you liked that! Please review, I know this was a short one, but it means a lot!**


	18. A Necessary Evil

**Y'all know the drill - bold means Russian, flashbacks are in third person. We're just going to ignore the fact that I disappeared for a long time and celebrate the fact that I'm back. Yay! (Creds to Ememandersson for getting me off my ass though). Also disclaimer - I use google translate, so if any of you actually know Japanese please forgive me for the rough translation.**

Raven POV

"How long do we have until the end of the period?" I asked Alec; he seemed the more helpful of the two. He frowned and checked his watch.

"Forty minutes; why?"

I nodded but didn't answer. Magnus would be able to get here in fifteen; he was staying at an apartment between here and Jace's house. That would give him about twenty minutes to deal with everything before the students flooded the halls. However, that didn't account for teachers going places or students skipping class, so I mentally begged for him to hurry up.

There was a bathroom right behind me, and I snagged a roll over paper towels. I ripped off several before tossing the roll to Alec.

"Start helping me with the blood," I ordered. Isabelle looked incredulous, but Alec glared at me.

"Are you serious?" He hissed with surprising venom. "We almost died! You just killed people! Are you not going to tell us what the Hell is going on?"

I turned my gaze to Katya, silently begging her for support. She shrugged, as if to say, 'You're on your own here'. I glared at her before turning back to face Alec.

"We don't have time for explanations; do you want a janitor or student skipping class to come down this hallway and see this? Because I can say with one hundred percent certainty that she and I -" I gestured to Katay " - would be able to talk our way out of getting arrested, or we'd have someone from high-up release us. You, however? I have no qualms about throwing you under the bus."

Alec's face paled, but he plowed on. "You think we'll be able to take care of that much blood - and that many bodies -" his voice sounded strangled, as if he was trying not to think about what he was saying "With supplies from a _high school bathroom_?" His tone was a strange mix of incredulous, terrified, and pissed off.

" **He's right,** " Katya said quietly. I whipped around to glare at my girlfriend.

" **Excuse me**?" I asked, annoyed. " **You're siding with him**?"

Katya pushed past Alec and Isabelle - much to Isabelle's obvious annoyance - and took my hands in her own. " **I'm always on your side, you know that** ," she murmured quietly. " **I just think that you're not thinking clearly. You just had a demon you thought you'd buried in your past come back and attack you. Just - just listen to what he's saying. What are we going to be able to do with paper towels? We don't even have bleach, or mops, or shovels, or any efficient way to get all of those bodies down the stairs.** "

I shot daggers at her, but eventually grumbled in reluctant agreement. " **Fine. But what do you suppose we should do now? We can't just -** "

"I'm sorry," cut in Isabelle, not sounding sorry at all; but I decided to cut her some slack after glancing toward her and seeing that her face was ashen. It was impressive the girl could keep her voice steady. "But what the _hell?_ We were just attacked, and you two can speak Russian? And - and you guys and Clary have the skills of some sort of off-brand Jackie Chan? _What_?"

I inhaled slowly before turning to Isabelle. "I promise we'll explain everything soon," I lied, "But right now we need to focus on not getting arrested. Does that sound good?" Isabelle's gaze dropped from my eyes and she nodded slowly. "Okay. So Magnus is coming, and he'll deal with it, but we have to make sure nobody sees the bodies in the meantime."

" **You're not seriously going to tell these two everything,"** Katya said incredulously.

I turned to face Katya. " **Well what would you suppose?** " I snapped back angrily. " **There aren't exactly a lot of options here. This is Harry Potter. We can't just obliviate them. They're going to remember. And they're more likely to drop the subject if we tell them the whole story.** "

Katya's eyes darkened ever so slightly - not with anger, but with a blackness that I knew only too well. It was that look that I had first fallen in love with. " **You know my suggestion,** " Katya said quietly but firmly. " **No explanations necessary and you'll never have to worry about them telling anyone.** "

I shut my eyes tightly and inhaled sharply. " **I can't do that anymore, Katya,** " I replied just as quietly. " **I - I just quit, and I don't -** "

Katya let out a scoff. " **You quit. Quit what? Quit knowing what needs to be done?** " She sighed and placed her hands carefully on my face. " **Raven, just because Clary thinks good and bad are black and white, doesn't mean it's true. Remember the first time we went out together in Moscow? When my father gave us our first assignment together?** "

i nodded slowly, thinking back to that moment.

 _Moscow, Russia, September 2014_

" **Just because my father thinks we'll work well together doesn't mean I like you, Morsmundi,** " Katya murmured vehemently as the two of them, swathed in black, crouched on the thin metal catwalk overlooking a large warehouse. " **If it were up to me, you'd be off in St. Petersburg somewhere and I'd be accompanied by Petrov."**

Raven snorted. " **If you'd brought Petrov instead of me,"** she replied dryly, her eyes searching the warehouse - so far empty except for large crates and plastic chairs scattered around, " **You'd have been caught on your way in here. He walks like a drunk elephant on steroids, and his breathing alone can be heard from half a mile away.** "

Katya rolled her eyes but didn't disagree; she knew Raven was right. It had become somewhat of a joke within the entire Moscow Faction that Dominik Petrov was more of a bull than a mafia operative. She opened her both to speak - probably a scathing insult, knowing Katya - but before she could make a sound, there was a loud metal screech and the door facing the two women swung open. Six beefy men stalked in, all decked in the usual attire of the Red Tokyo Yakuza, a rogue section of the Japanese Yakuza. They wore smart black suits with braided silk strands the color of fresh blood stitched to their left arms. They strode over to one of the largest crates and one of the men, the tallest, unlocked it. Two other men began to pull the huge doors open, and there were several cries that didn't come from any of the Yakuza members.

Raven's eyes narrowed in disgust and loathing as Katya swore softly; three men had entered the crate and began to drag out the cargo. Katya and Raven had come here thinking it was a diamond-smuggling ring, but they were wrong. The Yakuza weren't smuggling diamonds; they were smuggling people. The cargo was human beings.

The Yakuza members had begun to line the captives up in one long line, and as they did, Raven realized none of them looked older than twenty, and the youngest looked about twelve.

Raven didn't exactly have the moral high ground in most situations; after all, she was an assassin, a glorified gun-for-hire, and she frequently worked with the Russian Mafia. However, she did have few rules; never anyone who was vital to an equality effort, and no children. Ever. Even the Russian Mafia had agreed to that particular rule; they wouldn't touch a child. A few sections of the mafia hadn't wanted to tie themselves down to that rule, and had broken off - the Solntsevskaya Bratva chief among them. Raven never took contracts from the Bratva, or any of the other, smaller factions that had separated.

" **Wishing you brought a gun now**?" Katya asked teasingly, but the older girl's eyes were devoid of humor as her gaze swept along the people below. Raven shook her head, a cold, dangerous smile on her face.

" **I don't need a gun** ," she said, her fingers finding the hilts of her knives. One of the six Yakuza members, the same one who had unlocked the crate, started to shout at the dirt-smudged line of people before him in croaky Japanese.

" **What's he saying**?" Katya hissed.

" **He's giving them their job description** ," Raven translated grimly. "The younger ones are being sold of as textile workers, and the older few -" she strained her ear to listen in again, and her already dangerous expression turned down-right lethal. "Sex slaves."

Katya's eyes narrowed. " **Alright. You head back around the side of the building and I'll start shooting from up here, enough to cause a -** "

But before she could finish, Raven had already dropped down from the rafters and landed on the back of the man speaking. He didn't have time to let out a shout of surprise as Raven, whose knife was already in her hand as she jumped, slashed across his neck. Shining red blood sprayed out from the wound across the line of slaves, and Raven jumped off of the man's body, turning around to bury her knife into a second large body.

The first few seconds of confusion were now over, and Raven was now staring at four well-trained members of the Red Tokyo Yakuza. The closest one lashed out a hand to grab her arm and she dodged underneath, before rising up to thrust a knife into his armpit He let out a howling scream and she tugged the blade out of his flesh before hearing the familiar quiet 'pop' of a gun with a silencer.

" **Took you long enough!** " She called up to the rafters as the man coming up behind her feel to the ground. She swirled around to see the last two Yakuza members raising small shotguns at Raven. She grinned arrogantly at them, tilting her head. "Nani o matteimasu ka?" She asked with a smirk.  
Katya would have called her reckless; Raven preferred daring. However, she wasn't suicidal, and she didn't wait around to respond. She ducked behind another one of the crates just as a loud, ringing gunshot went off. It was followed by two more short pops.

" **You're safe!** " Came Katya's voice from above. Raven ducked around the crate one more time before approaching the fallen bodies of the six men. There was a quiet thump as Katya dropped from the rafters and rolled to a stand. The two young women turned to the line of people, all of them pale and shaking.

" **You're safe now,** " Katya told them slowly. " **We will not harm you.** "

The oldest - a young man who looked just about twenty - stepped forward. As Raven got a better look at the former slaves, she realised with interest that only one of them, a young teenage girl, looked Japanese.

" **Who - who are you?** " He asked in bad Russian. Raven tilted her head.

" **Where are you from?** "

The boy looked hesitant to answer, but also terrified of disobeying Raven. " **Canada,** " he said softly, taking a small, almost unnoticeable step in front of the young twelve year old girl.

Raven slid her knives away and smiled softly. "My name is Raven. This is Katya." She gestured to the Russian beside her.

The Canadian looked relieved that the two spoke English. "Why -"

Before he could finish, the young girl shoved him aside and ran at Raven. The assassin froze in shock as the girl clutched her around the midriff. "Thank you," she sobbed, tears flowing freely down her dirt-stained cheeks. "Thank you."

Raven blinked as she looked down at the girl, a warm feeling in her chest pulsing as Katya looked on with a smile.

 _Alicante, Virginia, December 2017_

" **You killed those men without a second thought,"** Katya said softly. " **But do you regret slaughtering them? Do you regret the fact that their lives ended?** "

I swallowed, remembering the glowing feeling I had felt afterwards. " **No,** " I acknowledged quietly. I closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, before meeting Katya's gaze again. " **But they don't deserve it. Those men - those men did. Alec and Isabelle - they haven't done anything! They're just kids, Katya. They don't deserve to die."**

Katya's face hardened. " **If they blow your cover, they could get you killed. It's a necessary evil, Raven."**

I shook my head, my expression firm. " **No.** "

Katya turned to rub her temples as she sighed. " **Raven -"**

She was cut off by a quiet ring as my phone went off. Checking the number, it was a CIA closed line. Hopefully Magnus. I picked it up, pressing it to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Pancake. I'm downstairs. What stairwell did you say you were in?"

I breathed a sigh of relief as Clary and Jace returned hand-in-hand, making their way up the stairs. I ignored the twinge in my stomach at the sight as I told Magnus our location.

 **Again, sorry I was gone for such a long time. I'll try my best to get the next chapter in soon - I've got a couple of free days coming up so you** **never know. I hope you enjoyed this chapter - Please please please review!**


	19. Gone

**So I'm full of apathy and have lost basically all motivation for this story except Ememandersson occasionally gets me up and off my ass so thanks i guess. Anyway don't expect the next chapter to be soon bc finals n shite but it shoudn't be nearly as long of a break because I'm kind of excited to write the next chapter.**

Clary POV

I squeezed Jace's hand gently, turning my head to smile comfortingly at him. He was handling all of this surprisingly well, even considering his little breakdown; the first time I'd killed someone, I had cried for hours. Jace had been able to pull himself together in a matter of minutes. He gave me a tentative smile in return, the anguish in his golden eyes mostly diminished. He squeezed back, and something in my chest twinged. It was a strange, foreign feeling, and yet completely familiar. As if I'd both never felt something quite like it in my entire life, but also felt it every day.

"Magnus is in the building," Raven said as Jace and I made it to the top of the staircase. "He should be making his way up here as we speak." I nodded, relieved; although I knew that even if the teachers called the police on us, Director Penhallow would be able to get us out of prison, I didn't know if she would be able to pull the same strings with Isabelle and Alec. Jace would probably be fine - if his dad was high up enough in the FBI to need Raven and I to guard him, then he was high up enough to get his son released from prison - but I didn't want anyone to be arrested on any false charges. Also, it would probably make the Lightwood siblings spill their guts to the police, and that would be potentially fatal to the CIA. And to Raven and I's survival in America.

There was no way I was going back to Japan, and with the SVR's vendetta against Raven, Russia wouldn't be an option either. Katya could only protect her for so long, and I was tired of running. I was tired of always having to look over my shoulder. Besides, I didn't want to have to leave and betray Magnus or Jem or Will, or even Director Penhallow. And I doubt Raven would want to leave Katya.

Jace's hand fell from mine as I stepped forward into Raven's familiar embrace. "I'm sorry you had to see him again," Raven whispered in Arabic. At first I was puzzled - why would she use Arabic? - but then I realised that it was a language that she was sure Katya couldn't speak. I felt a warm rush of overwhelming gratitude - even though Raven clearly trusted Katya, and may even still be in love with her, she wasn't going to reveal anything me that I didn't give her permission to. She was still protecting me, even against the only person she might trust as much as me.

I felt another, hotter rush as I realised that maybe she didn't trust Katya as much as she trusted me. I didn't want to think about how smug that made me feel.

"It's okay," I replied, also in Arabic. "I think - I think it helped. To get closure. To defeat him." Indeed, I felt different. Not better, necessarily, but… different. Less bitter. The panic attacks, triggered by men who looked like him - who had the same oily voice - had grown less frequent over the passing years, but there was always that faint buzzing at the back of my mind. The buzzing that was manageable. Now, the buzzing was gone. It wasn't replaced by clarity, but with void. There was a silence at the back mind, and I wasn't quite comfortable with it.

"It's too quiet," I admitted softly, "But I think… I think it's better." Raven nodded and pulled back before turning to Jace.

"Jace," she said softly, switching back to English, "Are you alright?"  
My eyebrows rose. Raven hated Jace; of course she didn't want him dead, but I didn't expect her to be so gentle about it. But maybe she was doing it for my sake.

Jace looked even more surprised than I did, and if he hadn't still been shell-shocked from the events that had just transpired, I think he might have gaped at her. As it was, he just blinked numbly, eyes wide, before nodding. His fingers drifted back up to graze against mine, and I took his hand again absentmindedly.

I glanced over Raven's soldier and caught Katya's gaze. The Russian's eyes were narrowed, not in irritation, but in mild suspicion. It wouldn't escape her notice that Raven and I had purposely used a language she did not speak. I just hope it wouldn't affect her relationship with Raven too much - or at least, that's what I told myself.

"Jace?" Alec asked, shouldering his way past Raven to put his hands on Jace's shoulders. "Are you - are you alright?" The boy asked. Isabelle followed him, her face slightly green.

Jace nodded numbly. He seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. Alec gripped him in a tight hug, and Isabelle followed. She seemed to be handling the situation particularly badly, but I didn't blame her. It wasn't often that a teenager could watch such carnage and be perfectly fine afterwards. In fact, I wasn't sure whether I should be perturbed or impressed with how Alec was dealing with things. He didn't seem that scarred at all.

Raven sighed with relief and Katya crouched into a ready position as a voice spoke up from behind me. "Am I interrupting something?" A silky voice asked from behind me. I grinned.

"Magnus," I replied smoothly, turning around to see him ascending the stairs. One eyebrow was raised, and his hair was sprayed with glitter.

"Well, you've certainly made a mess of things," he said dryly, looking pointedly at the bodies on the stairs. His gaze flicked back up and lingered momentarily on Alec before returned his gaze to me. "Care to explain, Biscuit?"

Jace sputtered, "Wha - Biscuit?"

We ignored him as Raven stepped forward. "We will, but we should get our story straight for this first. We can explain everything to you later, and then of course we'll write a full report for Penhallow, but - this has to be taken care of."

Magnus nodded, biting his lip as he looked at the scene around him. I stifled a smirk as Alec's eyes followed our handler.

"Okay," Magnus said after a while, "So we go with the classic pissed off, gang boyfriend. He was after you, brought his gang buddies, and…" his eyes narrowed. "Who's that?" He asked, gesturing towards Katya, his gaze cold. "She wasn't anywhere in Herondale's file. She's not one of his friends, or family." He gestured towards Katya's posture, her bloody and bruised fists, as the Russian glared at him. "She's not a student. So. Who is she?"

I glanced at Katya and then at Raven, a question in my eyes. Her head shook ever so slightly and I turned back to Magnus.

"A plant. Pangborn brought -"

"This was Pangborn?" Magnus asked sharply, and I realised I'd never actually told him anything - he just knew that our cover had been blown.

I nodded toward Pangborn's still body on the floor, and Magnus exhaled slowly. "Okay. Well. That's better news than I expected," he admitted, "But continue. Who is she?"

"Pangborn was working with the Italians," Raven said. "She's an MI6 operative who was undercover with the Italians when she was ordered to come here. She didn't want to let kids die, so she helped us. Her cover has probably been blown to - we should be thanking her, not interrogating her."

Katya stepped forward. "My apologies, sir," she said in an impeccable south London accent. "I should have had my handler contact the American government before placing me in the Italian sect here."

Magnus held her gaze for a moment, before speaking. "You're the new girl," he realised, "The one who enrolled a few days ago. I've been keeping tabs on any new students - you're lying."

I swore internally but Katya took it in stride. "As I said, I was ordered here on behalf of the Italian mob. They knew about Jace, and his new bodyguards, and I'm the only one young enough to pass as a high school senior. They sent me in to get the scope of their abilities. I fed them some lies about how Jace's two bodyguards were incredibly skilled, hoping that they'd give up, but they just doubled the amount of people they were going to send. I didn't expect these two to actually be so good."

Magnus didn't look convinced, but he didn't push it. "Okay," he said, "Same plan. Ex-boyfriend is pissed off. Brings gang buddies. However, Clary knew about her ex in advance, and hired a bodyguard - we'll call this girl Alice - to keep her safe. Alice did her job today. If we can get even a few bodies out, then it won't be foolproof, but it'll be believable."

Katya, Raven, Jace and I nodded. Alec and especially Isabelle looked a bit taken aback. "Are - are you not going to explain to us what actually happened?" Isabelle asked weakly.

"Biscuit, do you want to take this one?" Magnus asked, looking at me pointedly.

I pressed my lips together before replying, "You guys should come with us, we'll - we'll take you to HQ, explain it all."

Alec's eyes widened. "HQ?" He asked incredulously. "What, do you guys work for the FBI or something?"

I didn't reply. There was a short silence, which Magnus broke by cutting in with, "the crew is on there way. We'll get a few bodies out, leave two or three to explain the blood that we won't be able to get rid of in time, feed them the story and say you were rushed out for your safety. We'll be Katya's back-up; that way they'll still call the police and have them get the rest of the mess cleaned up."

I nodded, lacing my fingers through Jace's once more.

Raven POV

Jace and Clary's new intimacy did not escape my notice. I felt a small prickle of heat in my stomach but ignored it; it wouldn't be fair to Clary, and besides, I had Katya back.

I groaned inwardly as I listened to Magnus explain the plan. Bringing Isabelle and Alec back to HQ was protocol for covers broken in front of civilians, but it would mean a lot of paperwork, and Director Penhallow was not going to be happy. Clary and I were already in deep shit; this was not going to help.

With a sigh, I began to descend the stairs just as the familiar sight of a CIA clean-up crew - blank CSI jackets, latex gloves, masks that covered their mouths, and metal briefcases. Clary, Jace, Katya and the Lightwoods began to follow.

We made it to the landing before Magnus called out, "Oi, Crumpets! Where do you think you're going?"

My forehead creased before I realised he meant Katya. The Russian turned to him, an apologetic smile on her face. "I have to report back to my bosses; tell them the situation, ask them to get into contact with your people. Maybe we can have resolve this without needing to involve Interpol," she finished with a conspiratorial grin.

Magnus let out a small laugh and nodded. I pressed my lips together, still impressed by Katya's ability to manipulate. By relating to him over a common enemy - like the irritation and paperwork Interpol always brought - she managed to warm herself to him. It was a strategy I'd first learned from Lilith.

"What about me?" Jace piped up. "I already knew about you guys. Should I come to the briefing?"

I turned to Magnus, raising an eyebrow. He rolled his eyes. "You two both have to come," he said, gesturing to Clary and I, "and you're not supposed to leave Jace alone, so yes. Although it's against protocol to bring a client directly to HQ..."

"What if you watched him? Or Will -"

But Magnus was already shaking his head. "Every agent is on duty right now. Only the trainees are available."

"Great!" Clary said, brushing a strand of copper hair from her face. "Have Maureen watch him, just for a couple hours."

"I don't think -"

"Pangborn's dead, Magnus. He was the one Jace needed protection from, remember?" I asked, and Magnus held my gaze for a moment before sighing and nodding.

"Okay, fine. I'll call Maureen and she can take him home and stay with him while we're at headquarters. Sound good?"

There was a general murmur of consensus and Magnus texted Maureen. I could hear Clary talking softly to Jace in the corner as Katya leant against the wall near me.

"I'll meet up with you tomorrow morning?" She said in a nonchalant undertone. I nodded, and she walked off as Magnus snapped his phone shut.

"Right, she's in the area anyway, so Jace she'll meet us at the front entrance and Ragnor and I," he gestured to the one of the men who was cleaning up the blood, "will pose as police officers taking you all in for questioning."

 _Three Hours Later_

I couldn't keep my knife still as I stood in the back of Lucian's office. Clary's head was on my shoulder but I could feel her muscles were just as tense as mine. Lucian was already pissed at us, and blowing our covers like a couple of amateurs wasn't going to help our case. Best-case scenario, we were looking at months of desk duty.

"I don't understand," Isabelle said for the umpteenth time. "Clary and Raven are CIA agents?"

Lucian nodded. "Yes. And if you mention that to anyone, you'll be prosecuted for committing treason."

There was a thin silence, which Alec broke by saying, "I don't understand. The CIA hires minors now?"

"They're actually nineteen now. But we hired them when they were seventeen. Clary and Raven were… special cases." Lucian didn't elaborate, to my relief.

"So why was this Pangborn guy after Jace?"

"He -"  
The door flew open, and Magnus hurried inside. "Clary, Raven," he said grimly, "we fucked up." I knew something was wrong when he used our real names.

"What's wrong?" Clary asked immediately.

"Bane," Lucian said sharply, "You can't be in here."

"Jace never arrived at his house, and Maureen hasn't answered her phone or her earpiece. They're gone."

 **So I know not much happened in this chapter but the next one will be better I promise... I'm excited to write it actually, and (hint hint) there will probably be lots of graphic violence. Like. EXTREMELY graphic violence. Those bad guys sure do love their torture.**


End file.
